Thailand Student Blog

Jazmin M., Age 19, Mt. Scott

The social justice issue facing Surin is the industrial agriculture and the green revolution. The green revolution was a development plan by governments, international banks, and corporation that tried to help rice farmers grow rice faster and better. The farmers would buy fertilizer but would kill the soil and the farmers would have to keep on buying more and more fertilize as they go. Then later the cost of fertilizer was more then the income of selling rice. To make more rice, farmers would take out loans to get more fertilizer and that would lead to debt.
 
The human rights that are being threatened are the farmer’s source of income because there money would go to the loans that lead to debt and farmers wouldn’t have money for themselves. The water they use is rain water that is collected by the gutters on the roof top and the farmers were concerned that the chemical would drift in the air to set on there roof and contaminate there water supply. The water is not only to drink but to bathe, cook, laundry, animals, ect... And by taking that they would have to buy water and lead to more debt. The chemical was harmful for the animal they raise at the farm and were disappearing which was there food supply.
 
Pa’ganya is a member and one of the main organizers to the villagers. She started to travel and learn about organic farming instead of chemical farming. She came back to educate her community to switch to organic farming. They get support from the Surin Farmers Support group which means they became fair trade and got paid a fair price before the rice is out in the market. Pa’ganya also travels to talk to government officials about how important organic farming is and reaches out to chemical farmers to change there ways.

P’nok, an NGO to the Surin Farmer Support group is an important member because she helps Surin farmers with the transition from chemical agriculture to organic farming and helps sell there rice around the world in the fair trade system. Not only that she organizes to have a green organic market in the city so it benefits the consumers to organic produce and farmers selling there crops in there community. It helps get the world out about eating healthy and green. One thing that stuck out to me was Wandie a teenage girl who started the Kids Love Natural Club. It is about children in the community gathering to learn about being self sufficient.
 
Thailand is the world’s leading exporter rice and 99% of that rice is grown with chemicals. In my opinion buying this rice is not worth it because the farmers get treated poorly. There land is contaminated and they go into debt, leading into a cycle of poverty. I feel if this continues the farmers will lose there land. If this happens the farmers will lose there traditions.

Jenny E., Age 23, Portland YouthBuilders

The True Cost of a Meal
Recently The Pangaea Project / Thailand team has visited a small providence Udon Thani located in the N.E. part of Thailand. The Pangaea project had a special interest in this small community of 10,000 people threatened off there land due to a potash mining project. Potash is needed for fertilizer to grow rice and other global commodities.  
 
A Italian/Thai Corporation has worked out a deal with the Thai government to mine for potash which happens to be the main ingredient in fertilizer. Needless to say, the Thai government is in favor of the mining. The governments hope is the mine will create jobs and boost the economy.
 
When the corporation does mine this community, sixty-nine villages will have to relocate, do to the effects on the land, such as, animals no longer will be able to drink from the lake, which means no cattle. No produce will grow on the land, and no longer will villagers be able to drink rain water due to water contamination cased from the 120 ft. high, 1/3 of a mile mountain of salt. These piles of salt are the by-product of mining potash, which the Italian /Thai corporation plans to leave behind.
 
Luckily there are local leaders such as Suewit and Pgim social workers, villagers who are members of the Conservation Club stepping up in the community to fight back to protect there human rights, such as the right to a clean water source land a secure home , income and clean air
 
The leaders in the community of Udon Thani are raising awareness by broadcasting on a local radio station, going door to door talking with other villagers, buying and producing organic products and pressuring the government to revoke the policy change that has allowed the companies the right to mine.
 
Is this global commodity worth it? In my opinion, no. Yes the government has the right to want to boost the economy and yes we need the product when Thailand is the worlds leading exporter of rice and 99% of  rice is grown using chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers but when we have alternatives like organic farming that needs no chemicals why should these villagers have to give up their human rights?

Carly Jo S., Age 17, Mt. Scott

There are many issues and tragedies that face countless communities throughout our world, which we remain completely oblivious to.  Is this any fault of our own? Definitely not, but it is our duty to keep updated on as much knowledge as we have available. When you do not keep open ears, an open voice and an open heart to such sufferings, dilemmas, or simple callings, then you do become a player in their one sided game. For me, I am here to inform you about the current situation that a small, loving community suffers in UdonThani, Thailand. I can call them small and loving because I have met these people first hand. I have stayed in their homes, ate their food, shared advice and stories, played with their kids, cooked dinner with them, and got the gift of staying under their care and shelter.
               
Here in UdonThani, the Italian-Thai Corporation has become aware that the community in this region is currently taking residence on a land full of valuable Potash used for chemicals to make fertilizers for the world market. The Italian-Thai Corporation is trying its hardest to fight for this mine to take place so they can gain control over the land and the potash. This action is something we like to call Cause and Effect. By this mining taking place, these innocent victims will be deprived of their lively hood and well being. The last thing the people of this land want is to be displaced from their land, culture, food and income security, and their irreplaceable memories.
               
In return, the Italian-Thai Corporation has been “bribing” this community with petty commodities and uncertain promises. Would you be willing to give up your home and priceless memorabilia for a T.V or an unstable, short lived job? A job participating in the demolishment of your own land. If this mine does take place, this will cause approximately 10,000 powerless people to be forced out of their home and into temporary, good for nothing, impersonal “homes”. No only will this corporation throw these people who have lived on this land for generations out of their own community, the effects of the mine will literally cause the nature and wildlife surrounding to slowly diminish. With toxic salt piles the height of a 6 story building, it is nearly impossible for nature itself to survive. The salt extracted from the mine would kill any animal that came in contact with it, and do just about the same for human beings. If it has such intense effects on living creatures, try to imagine the effects it will have on the always reliable, irreplaceable land.
               
The will power in the people of UdonThani is something to truly admire. This would naturally take a huge toll on anyone who encountered such a crisis, but it is how you go about dealing with such problems that defines you as a person. There are those people who easily fall under the category of a bystander, and then there are those people, who stand up for what they believe in and feel! Those people are the people you can define as a leader. This community in whole, I would define as strong, noble and not scared to take on the world. It takes a lot to voice your heart, but once that action is taken, there is only room for progression. Numerous residents, NGO’s, group organizers and head leaders, make up this group of leadership and change makers. Countless citizens have voiced their opinions, views and wishes about this mine not taking over their land, all across the city. They have gone out of their way to speak to the hearts of others, in hoping to make their voices heard and their feelings taken into consideration. The community has spoken to various ranks of their Government, broadcasted themselves on the local radio network and opened up their love and advice to neighboring communities sharing similar dilemmas. Not only are the people of this community speaking out about the current problem they face, they are sharing their valuable leadership skills to people all across the map.

Staying in this community, I’ve observed a way of life I’ve never observed before. These people of this community have so much love and advice to offer. Not only do they want to stop this problem, they want to show others that it is possible to make change, that there are other ways. Is it worth the cost of ones life and memories for a resource the world is already living comfortably without?

For these people of UdonThani to know what is in their future is not a possibility at the moment. All these people can do is keep voicing their souls and hope for the best. It is not fair for anyone to be put in such a situation. We human beings face unfair situations regularly, and there are two sole ways to going about dealing with the problem at hand. These people chose the greater good of the two. They are standing up and attempting to make a difference and make themselves heard. Often we don’t realize how easy it is to sit and dwell on the situation at hand, and get frozen in the present, but doing so will not move the road of progression that lays in front of you forward. It can take a lot to make that first step towards change, but once you’ve begun you can only move onto greater things.  These are the people who will have a big impression on my heart. These are the people that let me know that change is achievable. That leadership is possible and that I can be that leader. I can be that one to make the change happen. It is all up to me.

Shelby H., Age 19, Mt. Scott

The community that we went to in Udon Thani is being bribed by a corporation called Italian Thai, to sell their land so that it can be mined for potash. Potash is used to make pesticides, and potash is 100 times saltier then table salt, and if anybody were to even lick potash, animal or human, they would die because it is too salty. The social justice issue that is facing this community is that their homes, and their water would be taken away, because if the company called Italian Thai mines in their community, then over 10,000 people would be displaced and have nowhere to move to. The human rights that are being threatened are that 10,000 people would have no homes, no way for their children to get an education, or any clean drinking water.

How the community is responding to the issue is they are coming together and talking, telling other communities that haven’t been affected by mining about the costs of it, doing research about mining, talking to the government. Some of the people there in the community want them to find some other place to mine, other people in the community do not want them to mine anywhere at all. Some of the people we met are named Suwit, and P’Jim, and they are a part of the Conservation Club, and they are a few of the people that helps organize people from the community to find ways to keep their land.

I don’t think that the benefits associated with the global commodities, (potash, rice), are worth the costs that it takes to produce the commodity. People’s lives are at stake for potash, to make chemical fertilizers, that isn’t needed to grow things on land. Fertilizers were never really needed, we just started using chemical fertilizers fairly recently. People in Surin were growing their food organically, or using other natural ways that wouldn't harm their land, and it works for them. Chemical fertilizers are never really needed, they are just used to make plants grow bigger and maybe faster.

Fransisco A., Age 18, Portland YouthBuilders

i believe that the issue these people are facing is more than one. The green revolution which leads to industrial agriculture and eventually the loss of culture. while we were there, we met the people that are fighting to protect their way of life their culture their land their people their family. we spoke with p'nok, who works for Surin's farmer support and they help low income farmers who chose to leave the green revolution by helping them sell their products internationally, locally and helps them get the international fair trade license.

people are being forced to go with the flow of the green revolution because the surrounding farms produce much more than a organically sustainable farm. the methods the industrial farmers use are faster and more productive but at what overall cost? the industrial farmers use chemicals that harm the land and the surrounding villagers. the people of the land could no longer live there the water they used to drink was collected from the rain and the rain was now contaminated because the chemical fertilizers dried up the soil and every time needed more and more fertilizers to produce the same amount of rice as before, but the chemicals used for the rice would evaporate and it would contaminate it, making it poisonous. the people who now face this problem are not letting it get them, they have come together and started working as a community spreading the word informing the villagers the cause and effect the industrialize way of farming brings. p'ganya is the women leader of the village that we visited and they help inform people the harm its causing and lead by example because they are farming organically and their success shows. this global commodity is not worth the lives its harming, and not only that its harming the land and everything that lives there

Tony Y., Age 19, Portland YouthBuilders

Last week we went to Surin for our home stays for two nights and three days. We went there to see how rice was getting process and being traded fairly. We learned that rice farming is harder than it sounds. They spend so much time and effort out of there day and they don’t even get paid that much. We also learned 99 percent of the rice coming from Thailand wasn’t organically grown or being traded fairly. It was affecting the community. It also was affecting other things like fish that they eat, the water they drink and the air they breathe. So we went to visit a rice community where rice was organically grown. One of the leader named P’ Nok from a group called S.P.S was trying to spread the news to the other communities and about the health issues and not letting the company’s buy them off. They were just too far in debt. Some wasn’t going to change there ways. Some family’s were separated cause the kids went to go work in the city to help pay off there families debt.

Being there for two nights three days open my eyes just that much bigger to this issue. The first night I really couldn’t see why they wanted to live like this? But they were happy! Happier then most family’s. They just appreciate the little things in life. Yea they didn’t have the appliances we were use to, but that didn’t matter to them. They were happy with just having each other. People in the states always say “we don’t spend enough time with are family” its true! That’s what drives families apart. There always working trying to pay off there bill that they don’t see that family time is also important. For example; My home stay sister (P’em) didn’t have toys or video games or the finer things in life but she made good with what she had. She took a flower of a tree and four rocks off the ground and made some type of flower holder. That was fun to her! That made me think about the thing I have back home and appreciate it much more.

In my family we eat rice everyday. Is it worth it to buy rice that isn’t organic? No, buying organic rice would help there family much more cause then there families can live a healthier life and maybe have enough money to send there kids to school. Everyone should have a right to an education or to better there future.