Protests and College Entrance Exams

I will start with the college entrance exams. I was speaking with the school counselor and he told me of a college entrance exam of one of our seniors. This student did not have anyone proofread the essay before submitting it and only gave it to the counselor after submitting it via the website. The counselor told me the essay was very poorly written and that some of our 4th graders write journals better than this essay. I did not read the essay, but the counselor told me the girl actually used the phrase, "back in the olden days" in her essay. Apparently, this was also one of the girls top choices for a university.

I would have to say that this is just another example of how the academic standards at this school have been low in the past. If a senior cannot come through a school without being able to write a decent essay, then that student has not been challenged. From what I've been told, this is partially due to the fact that students have been allowed to fail a class in the past and move on to the next class without making up any work. This practice is currently changing. I truly feel this could be a very good school, but there needs to be some changes. I feel some of these necessary changes are underway as we speak and it is simply a matter of time until definitive results are visible, but we are heading in the right direction.

Now, onto the protests. For most of the protests up to this point, only Thais have been affected. However, now that they have shutdown the airports, it has affected the international community and the economy of Thailand, which depends heavily on tourism (not to mention the fact that I may not get my Christmas care package of Mom's cookies. Thats enough to make me go down there and break this thing up myself!!!). The way I see it, the PAD (the protesters) have been allowed to protest because no one wants to make anyone else mad and they all want to safe face (part of the Buddhist's culture).

But the army is not willing to disperse the PAD nor are they willing to overthrow the government, either result would lead to bloodshed, partially because of the money involved in both sides. The government is not willing to step down either, and therefore the PAD is not willing to stop protesting. So we are at a crossroads. The problem is, Thailand has done this before, the army set up a coup and an election was held, only to be back in the place that we are a year or two later. Its a cycle over here, some people don't like whats happening so they protest rather than allow the democracy to work out the kinks and change through elections.

Honestly, I believe this will end with more violence. I do not feel I am in danger, but I do believe that there will be major violence in Thailand before this is over. I keep telling my family that I am fine and in no danger, which is 100% true and I am not lying when I say that. Today, for the first time, I thought about what I would do if I had to leave Thailand for my safety. I think I would probably try to stay in Asia and maybe go back to Taiwan. Yes, I know, Taiwan and China currently do not have the best relations and that is another potentially dangerous place. But I enjoyed my time there and would like to go back.

But this is all contingent on the fact that I need to leave Thailand for my safety. Like I said, I don't see that happening because I am not involved in the Government and neither side really cares about me. The only time I have even seen a protester is when I was getting off the BTS and there just happened to be a rally on the street below. I didn't even go down there until it was over, just waited. I would literally have to search for trouble over here to find it.

As a final thought, I do find it interesting that the PAD is allowed to shut down an airport and pretty much cripple a nation. I cannot think of another country where this would be allowed or accepted. I feel that by doing nothing, the army is promoting this behavior, which is why it is happening now because it was allowed in the past. I am interested what other countries will do about this since it now affects the international community.

Aaron