The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.
-Franz Kafka, The Trial
“The Trial” is a haunting Kafka novel that is difficult to believe was not written with the aid of psychedelic drugs.
The synopsis, without giving anything away, is that a mid-level banker is suddenly accused in a most bizarre fashion of a crime, the nature of which is never explained to him. The book consists mostly of him talking to various bureaucrats and lawyers to figure out what he is being charged with no success — often narrated in a dreamlike, surreal tone that gives the impression of a low-intensity nightmare.
In that way, it is quintessential Kafka.
Josef K. is the name of the eternally disoriented protagonist, which is also what being a foreigner in Southeast Asia often feels like.
I am Josef K.
Related: On Thai Medicine (and Science vs. God)
For anyone who has read my currently out-of-print book, “Broken English Teacher,” one of the central themes I attempt diligently to relay is that the ways of the East/Southeast Asians will very often make no sense whatsoever to the foreigner.
Furthermore, asking why in an attempt to better understand their ways will only serve to complicate matters, as the explanation will likely make less sense than whatever prompted the inquiry in the first place.
Exhibit A: the annual Bangkok “pollution season” that runs from December to March, in which changing wind patterns coincide with massive rice field burning by the farmers to the north, resulting in suffocating smog that turns the sky on a cloudless day into a pale yellow, the location of the sun impossible to pinpoint.
The authorities could solve the problem; the technology exists; the public hates it.
Yet, year after year, the government comes up with increasingly more cockamamie schemes that do little to nothing to alleviate the problem.
Then, when April or May rolls around, the government declares itself victorious in the war on air pollution, someone civil servant bureaucrat gets a medal or something, and the charade begins anew all over in December.
Why won’t they fix it?
We’ll never know.
It’s not like a minor inconvenience.
Via The Independent (emphasis added):
Several flights were diverted at Bangkok’s airports this week as the Thai capital continued to battle dangerous levels of air pollution covering the city’s skyline.
Flights were diverted from Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport to Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sunday morning, as air pollution in the city reached hazardous levels.
Poor visibility, which dropped to just 150m around 7am, disrupted air traffic at the airport.
Related: Converted Pagan Headhunters and the Shining City on a Hill
The Thai PM recently returned from the lap of luxury, cavorting with the world’s technocrats in Davos, to decree that she’s going to crack the whip.
Via Bangkok Post (emphasis added):
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is poised to issue further instructions at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to combat the haze problem, according to government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub.
The issue of PM2.5 pollution will be the focus of the cabinet meeting after Ms Paetongtarn, upon returning from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at the weekend, said the escalating pollution crisis transcends national borders.
According to the premier, Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa has been asked to hold talks with Asean to seek regional cooperation to tackle the crisis under existing regional frameworks.
Will anything come of this endeavor?
Unless it’s some draconian new social engineering scheme to turn off the energy, let’s not hold our breath.
Or, actually, if you’re in Bangkok, maybe hold it.
