Apathy
A typical example of the apathy that exists in here has just occured to me.
Each morning I sit with a very intelligent inmate from Malaysia, George (63yrs old, Death Row) whose been here for 2 years now on a murder charge. The time I spend with George is very beneficial for me as he speaks college level English, and Ive found that prattling away in "pidgin" to others really does my brain in eventually. Besides all that, he is an ex-pat of long standing in Bangkok and he and I have several notable personalities of the local bar scene in common.
However, I have just had to cut short a session with him as I was on the verge of exploding in rage. He and I were discussing and critiscising the Human Rights agencies for thier seeming lack of interetsin in Thai prison conditions. My contention is that far too many prisoners are not bothering to write to friends, family and supporters illustrating the abuses. In turn those few on the outside who are willing to campaign on our behalfs have little of detail to work with.
I concluded my arguement with
"So George, just whom are you encouraging Audrey (his daughter) to lobby? Human Rights Watch? Freedom House?"
He smugly replied
"Oh, no one, I leave that sort of thing to you"
George unfortunatly is typical of 99.99% of the inmates here in the Hilton. Of the 4000+ inmates here I can only name 6 of us who are trying to raise awareness of whats going on in here.
They will all benefit from our work, which is no bad thing, but if they helped we would get it done much quicker.
Ah well, be safe out there
Gary Graeme Jones
D2 Bang Kwang
Each morning I sit with a very intelligent inmate from Malaysia, George (63yrs old, Death Row) whose been here for 2 years now on a murder charge. The time I spend with George is very beneficial for me as he speaks college level English, and Ive found that prattling away in "pidgin" to others really does my brain in eventually. Besides all that, he is an ex-pat of long standing in Bangkok and he and I have several notable personalities of the local bar scene in common.
However, I have just had to cut short a session with him as I was on the verge of exploding in rage. He and I were discussing and critiscising the Human Rights agencies for thier seeming lack of interetsin in Thai prison conditions. My contention is that far too many prisoners are not bothering to write to friends, family and supporters illustrating the abuses. In turn those few on the outside who are willing to campaign on our behalfs have little of detail to work with.
I concluded my arguement with
"So George, just whom are you encouraging Audrey (his daughter) to lobby? Human Rights Watch? Freedom House?"
He smugly replied
"Oh, no one, I leave that sort of thing to you"
George unfortunatly is typical of 99.99% of the inmates here in the Hilton. Of the 4000+ inmates here I can only name 6 of us who are trying to raise awareness of whats going on in here.
They will all benefit from our work, which is no bad thing, but if they helped we would get it done much quicker.
Ah well, be safe out there
Gary Graeme Jones
D2 Bang Kwang
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