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Gay Festival meets at Amor
Elfi Seitz
The latest gathering of the Gay Festival took place October 19. This time,
the members of this charitably club met at Amor, the popular gourmet
restaurant located in the center of Boys Town. Host Richard Burke delighted
his guests with yet another delicious dinner, which would have lived up to
the high standards of the Chaîne de Rôtisseurs.
 Jim
Lumsden carefully checks the prizes.
Once more, an astir Jim Lumsden presided over the meeting, putting on the
heat for the audience to get them buy as many raffle tickets as possible,
with the revenue being used for the “Heart2000” project. In his opening
speech, Jim announced that in this year, 1.7 million baht has already been
collected. 1.5 million baht was granted to “Heart2000” for medical treatment
of people suffering from AIDS. 100,000 baht went to the Ban Jing Jai
orphanage, and another 90,000 baht will be used to buy condoms, which will
be given out for free to the people in and around Pattaya.
Jim’s recipe of success was to walk from table to table, showing people the
top prize - two wonderful ruby rings. This way, he managed for the attendees
to spend the remarkable total sum of 61,000 baht.
Regrettably, I didn’t win them. However, I raked in three other nice prizes
in what Jim described as a ‘good success.’
Lions donate wheelchair
to disabled couple
Sa-ard (seated, right) receives
her new wheelchair from the Lions Club of Chonburi.
Patcharapol Panrak
Help came to an elderly disabled couple in the form of a wheelchair
presented by the Sattahip Lions Club.
For Pairoh Timthong, 71, and his wife Sa-ard, 65, who are not able to walk, life
had been hard.
They had previously built a hut on a tall platform of plywood with walls made of
old pieces of galvanized iron in a grove in Soi Kaomorn in Plutaluang
Sub-district and had been living on their own since their parents passed away,
depending on whatever governmental or private help that came their way.
Narong Theerajantarang kul, Sattahip district chief, knew about the couple.
The disabled pair reportedly accepted their condition believing that “this was
the price for their sins for regularly killing animals.”
But their luck may be changing a little.
Prasert Iampetch, chairwoman of Lions Club of Chonburi, along with of a group
from the disabled peoples’ association in Sattahip, visited the couple on
October 10, bringing with them a new wheelchair for Sa-ard.
Handing over the wheelchair, the Lions chairwoman said elderly Sa-ard could now
use it to exercise and be more mobile than before when the couple could only sit
or sleep in the hut all the time.
Prasert said her club had heard about the plight of this couple only through
reports in the media and urged that the media had an important role to play in
bringing news of people in need to the general public.
Thorand praises servicemen
Michael James Butler
In a keynote speech delivered by Peter Thorand, the current president of
the US Navy League (Thailand Chapter), he praised the behavior of sojourning US
servicemen and emphasized the importance of the US Navy visits, particularly in
times of suppressed tourism and mounting austerity.
 President
Thorand greets Colonel David Biow.
The occasion was the glittering US Navy Ball held at the Pattaya Marriott Hotel
and Spa to celebrate the 233rd anniversary of the US Navy. Retired and serving
officers, both Thai and USA were present all in uniform, whilst civilian dress
was black tie. The ladies were not to be out done and dressed in full evening
regalia; you could have be forgiven for thinking Hollywood had descended.
The president thanked the Marriott Hotel for their excellent service and mused
upon the activities of the Navy League. He explained the League’s responsibility
was to serve the seamen. This involves arranging programs of activities,
including sports, recreational excursions and community projects (known as
conreps).
For example, men from the US Abraham Lincoln assisted in the construction of a
house at a local school whilst crew members of the US Shiloh cooked a barbeque
for over 500 students at a local deaf and dumb school.
Thorand said many thought a Navy visit to Pattaya was for one purpose only, yet
that could not be further from the truth. Whilst nobody would deny the sailors
and a chance to let off steam they still gave generously of their free time to
mix and interact with the local community, making friends and winning hearts.
Despite their youth the sailors are generally courteous, friendly and sensitive
to the environment they were visiting.
In this mode, US seamen are great ambassadors for the Navy and a credit to the
United States itself. He sometimes wished members of the media and press would
spend time reporting these positive aspects of the forces activities rather than
blowing isolated incidents out of all proportion.
After appropriate thanks, guests responded with gusto to the toast to the United
States Navy.
Speaking later, Thorand emphasized the economic benefits of Navy visits. He said
that various sums of money spent had been mentioned following the visit of the
last aircraft carrier. They did not include the direct cost of restocking at
dockside plus fees and security expenses.
Thorand also cautioned that local vendors should not try to exploit the young
sailors which might ultimately have a regressive affect. He was responding to
tactics adopted by local taxis during a recent visit.
Coaches were deployed to transport personnel to a designated point in Pattaya
but from there they were at the mercy of the local traders. There have been
reports of sailors being charged 200 baht each to travel from Hard Rock to Royal
Garden and over 2,000 baht each for trips to Jomtien. People will only take so
much and then everybody loses he concluded.
The Navy League will shortly be publishing a definitive guide of acknowledged
Pattaya suppliers, a copy of which will be given to each visiting sailor.
For more information concerning the Navy League or how to participate in the
guide please contact Peter Thorand on 081 909 9098.
Baan Jing Jai treated
to fun day at Haven
Lamyai and Stephen (back row, left
and 2nd left) preside over the presentation
of 41,500 baht to Baan Jing Jai.
Last week over 40 children from the Baan Jing Jai Home were
treated to a free party at The Haven.
Aside from the food and drink and all the fun activities, the home was also
presented with 41,500 baht from collections made at The Haven and Roy Thornton’s
“hidden sixes” from Lewiinski’s, plus a further donation from the UK.
Plans are to hold one of these parties for the children every month from now on,
when more monies will be handed from donations collected during the month.
Mechai Viravaidya
addresses PCEC meeting
The regular Sunday meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club
got underway at the Amari’s Henry J. Bean Restaurant on Sunday, October 19 when,
after the usual announcements, MC Roger Fox invited vice chairman Stuart
Saunders to introduce the guest speaker, a man well known throughout Thailand.
Mechai Viravaidya is the founder and chairman of the Population and Community
Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand’s largest and most successful
private, non-profit organizations. Last year PDA gained world-wide recognition
by winning the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Award for Public Health.
 After
one of the best presentations the Pattaya City Expats has ever had, Mechai
(right) talks with enthusiastic PCEC members Jan, Sally and Gary about how they
might be able to assist the rural poor with the PDA’s investment and education
programme.
Mechai brought a very important message to the Club with his presentation on how
corporate partnership with a local village can help to eradicate poverty.
His main message is that the only reliable road is through fostering business
enterprises - turning the poor into “barefoot” entrepreneurs so that they can
afford the basic necessities of life. With the right approach and help from the
corporate sector, it can be done.
The PDA recommends an approach that tackles the root cause of poverty rather
than the consequence of poverty. The PDA works with the villages and
participating businesses using a proven formula. Further, there is no need for a
long range commitment as this approach requires only a five year investment of
from 1 million to 3 million baht, depending on the size of the village.
He described how a company partners with the village in a six step process: (a)
initial assessment/planning by the villagers; (b) visit by company task force to
the village to learn more and foster relationships; (c) villagers’ “eye-opener”
field trips to gather new ideas and observe successful business activities; (d)
villagers finalizing a development plan; (e) submitting the plan to the company
for consideration and funding; and (f) implementation of the plan with the
assistance of the company, PDA, and other cooperating agencies.
The PDA also assisted in establishing the private Lamplaimat School in Buriram.
Those selected for attendance are chosen by lottery, thus removing any
favoritism. The school offers learning experience not only in the alphabet, but
also in the practice of democracy. It also involves outside learning, such as
children’s’ trips to the market where they learn to negotiate and buy items as
well as observe how the market works. In addition to the usual curriculum, the
school offers training in cloth weaving, clothes making, and information
technology. The school has been favorably cited in studies done by an Australian
University and by the Thai Ministry of Education.
Mechai concluded by noting that business people can genuinely help to create a
better life for the poor and put an end to poverty. He then fielded many
questions from the audience as well as encouraging everyone to visit the Pattaya
Birds and Bees Resort and its Cabbages and Condoms restaurant, as they were
created to support the PDA with their profits. For those desiring more
information, he provided the PDA’s website, which is www.pda.or.th/eng/
The meeting concluded as usual with MC Roger updating the audience on upcoming
events and special interest group activities before calling on “Hawaii Bob”
Sutterfield to conduct the Open Forum. As always, the often humorous Open Forum
provided answers to questions from the members and guests about living here in
Thailand - following the Club’s motto of expats helping expats.
UN environment delegates meet at Dusit Thani Pattaya
The delegates in the meeting led
by Dr. Thanavat Junchaya (second row, center-right) are seen in this photo after
sessions held at Dusit Thani Pattaya.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently
gathered at Dusit Thani Pattaya to discuss strategies for enforcing the 2010
compliance with the Montreal Protocol’s CFC Phase-out obligations and to prepare
for HCFC phase-out in countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region. CFC
stands for Chloro-fluorocarbons while HCFC means Hydrochloro-fluorocarbons.
Nine countries from Southeast Asia and the Pacific as well as Australia and
Sweden were represented in the three-day meeting led by Dr. Thanavat Junchaya,
UNEP Regional Network Coordinator.
Guest speakers included Soodsakorn Putho, Director of Treaties and International
Strategies Bureau under the Department of Industrial Works. In his speech, Mr.
Soodsakorn remarked that HCFC phase-out was the next challenge for countries in
order to meet compliance with the Montreal Protocol. He also expressed
confidence that the meeting would bring about fruitful results in assisting the
countries during the phase-out of ODS (ozone-depleting substances) in a
sustainable manner.
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