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O'Dell, Gregory N. "Confesions of a Texas Disabled Student:." Linearism.Org Advocacy For Human Rights. Nov. & dec. 2008. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. <http://www.linearism.org/TheJournalofATexasMysticChpterII>.
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| From The Journal of A Texas Mystic |
| Chapter 7 Gender, Culture, Race |
A miracle is a positive event in our lives that seems to oppose the laws of physics or the natural order of things. Perhaps miracles are natural events
outside of peripheral perception or beyond the limits of human reasoning that gives hope in times of despair or uncertainty.
Take a moment and think of all the people who are so commonplace in your daily affairs; they seem to be non- existent or completely invisible. At times,
gender, race, and cultural groups seem to ride in a perceptual blind spot of social recognition. Gender is another tender blind spot of social recognition.
Gender is an identity role by which a person is recognized by himself or others.
Gender is the way we act, a behavior that is viewed as feminine or masculine by a particular culture, society, or group regardless of biological sex
determinations. In some societies, gender can be recognized as both, such as the term ‘two-spirits’ used by American Natives (notes). Conversely, in some
societies such as Tibetan Buddhist tradition, gender can be recognized as neither or gender neutral.
Nevertheless, gender is culturally determined by the way an individual identifies with others as a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ who are biologically determined in the
womb as genitalia develops from a sexually neutral fetus. So it makes good sense that gender has nothing to do with biological sex and gender is
misidentified as behavioral characteristics determined by biological sex. In other words, the way a person behaves could be based on a weaker sex
dominated by a stronger sex in relation to the way we adapt to the world biologically and culturally.
Not long ago, head hunting was the rave amongst Amazon clans which gave way to deculturalization by a society that knew its strength by corresponding
with other heads. In the same time period, a male dominated anthropologist rewrote theories that excluded the view of women of anthropology who know
their strength by using their own heads.
An encyclopedic definition of Anthropology is “the study of humanity” and that study is by way of ethnography or a compilation of observation reports
(Anthropology). We can not ignore the earliest biblical story tellers as ethnographers and these stories are preserved in Hebrew text as the first books of
laws that prescribe behavior, the way we act, and punishment for acting contrary to that prescription. No doubt religious beliefs that prescribe a natural
woman and a dominant man tend to be more prejudiced toward sexual alternative roles such as in today’s America.
Although Americans view themselves as a society of diversity and sexual indifference they are probably the least tolerant to alternative gender roles and
this could be in part based on a false belief that these roles are not ‘natural’, or more especially, violate traditional beliefs. The notion that women and men
are essentially different or compliment each other, constitute the idea of the natural woman and dominant male cultural consciousness that is based on
moral beliefs either prescribe from, or culturally developed from tradition. The biases to alternative gender roles are not religious biases, they are
developed from cultural associations that define what is ‘feminine’ and what is ‘masculine’ and how each should act.
We know American society as a whole is less tolerant to alternative gender roles and we can even say show prejudice to those that behave contrary to
their biological sex by contrast and comparison with other societies of the world. Anthropologists do not understand why the notion of the natural woman is
so prevalent world-wide but this does not mean that women of all ages played a lesser role to the dominance of men based on biological sex; nor does it
predict a male dominated society in the future based on biological sex. Nevertheless, global attitudes toward alternative gender roles seem more tolerant
than American bias to the same and to the extreme of legislating man made laws that forbid the behavior.
Likewise, societies that are accepting or more open to alternative gender roles such as Native Americans and Buddhist cultures seem more tolerant
because their moral belief systems are more tolerant to alternative gender roles. These beliefs can be understood as a disregard to a social morality similar
to the system of philosophy known as Confucianism which grew from the Buddhist tradition. The anatomical similarities of Native Americans are biological
links to Asian ancestry and could also be a causal relation to the same Buddhist ideology in which Confucianism developed.
Confucius seems to think we should be concerned with what is personally satisfying because a satisfying life is living in a society or group (Ren) by way of
ritual (Li). Relations are crucial with Confucius’ ethical methodology. Confucius rejected the idea of morality as a set of rules or imperatives; if ethics is Ren
by way of Li, then we can not make a judgment on another person’s behavior or say it is morally wrong to live in a certain way.
The idea of the natural woman is still prevalent in these societies and oppression of women including servitude and public beatings can not be ignored;
however, gender alternative roles are acceptable because gender alternatives are a way another person acts and does not threaten established order.
No person including my self is alien to moral convictions and my own biases seem more tolerant to the idea of alternative gender roles because I believe,
even if that belief is false, that gender is essential to the individual before conception and is naturally agreeable to the native American ‘two-spirit” ideology
and can not contradict the Buddhist notion of a gender neutral before birth. With that said, I identify myself as a recovering genderistic, someone who has
shown prejudice to the idea of alternative gender roles, and I contribute that bias to social construction because I was born and raised in the American
society that promotes or prescribes these biases.
The documentary ‘The times of Harvey Milk’ came as a surprise to me, to now understand that I had lived through a major cultural event and knew nothing
of the assassination of Harvey Milk. The most influential public figure advocating for gay rights and founder of the gay movement.
Perhaps Harvey Milk’s death had been obscured by the headlines that featured Jones Town Guyana where 900 followers of the Peoples Temple lead by
Jim Jones had committed suicide in hope of meeting together in a better afterlife on November 18, 1978. However, after a little research I find the press
gave full coverage of the assassination of Harvey Milk along side my daily reads of the Johns town tragedy. Most likely, my ignorance of the political
upheaval in San Francisco was rooted in my small Texas town customs that developed my values, assumptions, and beliefs about the world which included
a common false belief that homosexuals are sexual deviants and the worst of them preyed on children.
Harvey Bernard Milk, assassinated in the San Francisco Court House along with Mayor George Moscone was not a sexual deviant but a hero not only
amongst the gay community but for all peoples in America who face persecution in a society based on common law which shapes not only beliefs but law
and punishment. According to the Times Magazine, Harvey Milk was:
"the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet ".As the self-described "Mayor of Castro Street" he was active
during a time of substantial change in San Francisco politics and increasing visibility of gay and lesbian people in American society. He was assassinated in
1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by then recently-resigned city supervisor Dan White, whose relatively mild sentence for the murders led to the
White Night Riots and eventually the abolishment of diminished capacity defense in California (Wikipedia The Times of Harvey Milk)."
Public and private acts of homosexuality was a criminal offense in most states during Milk’s brief position on the Board of supervisors of the City of San
Francisco until it was finally challenged in 1984. Dorothy Bracey highlights this Supreme Court case in her text Exploring Law and Culture:
"Lisa Brower (1994) demonstrates that Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), in which the supreme Court of the United States decided that the right to privacy did not
extend to consensual sodomy, was one of the factors leading to a new stage in gay and lesbian activism( Bracey p. 26)."
The term deviant is usually a reference to an offensive person or even a criminal, but in its literal sense deviant simply means, ‘different from traditional
norm (Encarta Dictionary).’ The American judicial system is based on common law which historically considers traditional values of a dominating culture or
group. Bracey further elaborates the impact that customs and tradition have on law which in many cases creates a pluralistic applications based on
tolerance depending on the denominate group of a particular culture.
The dominant culture that shaped San Francisco values and beliefs in the late 1970’s were personified in city supervisor Dan White, a previously serving
police officer elected by the community to serve on the same City Board of his victims killed in cold bold on November 27, 1978 (Wikipedia The Times of
Harvey Milk). White received a light sentence based on an acceptance of a “Twinkie Defense” by a preselected group of jurors from White’s community.
Compassion was shown by entertaining the possibility of insanity by way of junk food intake which Dan white had been indulging weeks before the murders.
These jurors share the same common false belief as people from my small town in Texas, that homosexuals are sexual deviants and the worst of them
preyed on children. The jurors in this case gave White a light 5-year sentence for double political assassination. However, San Francisco was much more
tolerant to the gay community at the time because a large minority lived peacefully in Harvey Milk’s district. I would hate to think what the outcome would
have been if the same tragedy occurred in a small town in Texas with absolutely no tolerance such as where I lived in 1978. It would not surprise me if Dan
White would have been acquitted for ridding neighborhood of sexual deviants which would include Mayor Moscone for conspiring with the homosexuals.
The jury’s decision was not accepted as justice by San Francisco citizens who considered Dan White to be the worst of social deviants, a cold blooded
calculating killer. After the trial, a riot broke out by both heterosexual and homosexual citizens that brought havoc to the bay area by breaking out windows
in the court house, destroying public property, and the group is well remembered for systematically burning every police car within a torch throw. The riot
aftermath found relief in gay activism that has led over time to a high level of acceptance of homosexual relationships in all communities across American
which eventually spurred congress to remove laws based on sexual orientation and create new laws to protect gay citizens.
Bracey’s introductions to custom and tradition explain how values and assumptions can force pluralistic applications of expressed law:
“Values refer to things that are prized and sought after or disdained and avoided. Words such as good and bad are often associated with values. Some
cultural groups value rationality and self control; they often perceive alcohol as a threat these qualities. Others may value conviviality, while still others value
occasion on which inhibitions are dropped and the mind reaches beyond its ordinary state. Again we would expect that these cultural groups would differ in
respect to their laws about alcohol. (Bracey p. 2-3)”
Bracey’s example of alcohol tolerance is relevant to the content of her introductory chapters but the double-political assassinations at the San Francisco
Court House on November 27, 1978 shows how deeply rooted values and beliefs actually are in all societies and can carry the weight to modify expressed
law to the point of justified murder by reason of junk food insanity. So how can any society base justice on its norm and punish those that deviate outside
the expected traditional behavior of a community? The fact is, law is not justice but a set of rules that are dominated by the ruling class of power within a
particular culture.
If we use the term ‘deviant’ to refer to criminals or those that violate established law, then in not all cases is the law morally just. If the term ‘deviant’ is also
used to describe some moral disregard, then we are faced with a paradox of values and beliefs. Deferent cultures have contradicting ideas of what is ‘good’
and what is ‘bad.’ However all cultures have some overlapping idea about core moral beliefs such as murder. And yes, cases can be found where groups of
people encourage murder as perhaps a rite of passage for cannibal societies. But when we talk about expressed law, we talk about order amongst civil
societies even if it is an unwritten social contract. In my opinion, the deviants that had a part in the assassination of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone
include the community that supported Dan White although at the time their values were normal customary beliefs based on long standing tradition.
As a global power, the United States takes the position as the perfect social model, mentor to the world. However, when countries take to the American
democratic form of government and the outcomes of jurisprudence is contrary to American interest, the country is denounce by trade embargoes, debt
collection, and denied financial aid. American ideologies such as human rights and self-sufficiency are only as good as the court rulings that benefit the
political alliances of United States.
The film documentary "In search of International Justice" is probably the first critical documentary revealing the dualistic application of American law as it
used in national vs. International criminal courts (In search). Bullfrog productions distributes the film which is a documentary of post war world II tribunal,
“Sixty years ago, with the Nuremberg charter, the world first said "Never Again." But these proved empty words for the victims of the Cold War years. The
Superpowers couldn't agree on a universal code to punish war criminals. Tyrants ruled with impunity (Bullfrog Films).”
Judy Jackson, producer of the film, is well known for her documentaries of tyrant bureaucracies of death and human rights. The documentary incorporates
the skills of a forensic anthropologist as they search for the bodies of executed families members in the Balkans by orders of Slobodan Milosevic president
of the Former Yugoslavia (Jackson).”
Milosevic maneuvers through the allegations during pretrial, using an American defense strategy termed ‘the state war’, but he is put on trial anyways for
war crimes against humanity, cross examined by Louis Arbour as well as family, friends, and witnesses, peculiar to International Criminal Court established
in the Hague in 2002; the participation of court room guests would be unheard of in an American criminal court.
Milosevic responds to the acquisitions using an American habeas corpus defense, where are the bodies defense, or to say, no bodies, then murder did not
took place. However, the court room is full of emotionally charged witnesses and he cringes to their responses, ‘You ordered them killed, you know where
they are buried.” Anthropologists find many of the bodies buried under green bands of wild grass, the seeds dormant for ages, activated by the
topographical turning of soil to bury the bodies. Many of the body parts where found near the burial site, laying on the surface decomposed where they
were murdered.
Update 5/26/2011
War crimes fugitive Mladic arrested in Serbia
40 minutes ago - AP 1:23 | 0 views
Ratko Mladic, former Bosnian Serb commander who's been on the run for many years, has been arrested in Serbia, according to an announcement from
the country's president. (May 26)
Citation: http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/war-crimes-fugitive-mladic-arrested-in-serbia-25354040
Milosevic is an international banker and very familiar with American national law. His attorney would have been wise to use this approach in an American
justice system that allows for diplomatic immunities, especially if the criminal is tied to the United States banking dignitaries who could have also been
indicted. The United States is strongly opposed to the new international justice system because the legal consciousness ignores what American legalities
regard as common law of established precedence such as the German defense in Nuremberg, “There is no law in Germany, expressed or implied, that the
act of killing Jews is illegal.” This American/ British defense brought the Nuremberg Hearings into a 16 day judicial break, while American legal experts tried
to figure out how to prosecute a law that had never been established or tried (Mental note of test question in high school 1969v).”
Further, the international tribunal uses a different language of law in International criminal courts; whereas, American justice is revenge and punishment,
while the Hague court hearing’s understanding of justice, or the legal consciousness, is bringing peace to the survivors; knowing that their loved ones have
been found and closure can now begin to heal their emotional trauma. In contemporary times, United States criminal courts may have adapted these rules
of law from the International Criminal Court, but the survivors in American courts are only allowed to vent their emotional resentment, after the accused has
been tried and condemned.
Jackson’s documentary moves to the International Criminal Court of Northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I was surprised to see
children abducted into war as soldiers. American judicial systems regard minors as the responsibility of state, if they are orphaned or abandoned. The basic
needs of the child such as food, medicine, and education are basic human rights of children born in the United States. However, in Africa, orphaned
children were on their own while they bonded together forging for food in the surrounding jungle in the daytime, and hiding in safety under bridges and
structures of the city for safety at night. Although many of their parents were killed in war, the surviving adults took little responsibility for the orphaned
children.
Sally Merry might say, the American legal consciousness of democracy, natural rights, and respect, is very different than the legal consciousness the United
States promotes on the international market. She defines rights as conceptualized, not as belonging to an individual, “but as being embedded in
relationships and constitutive of these relationships (Merry p5.)” Americans believe they have natural rights that are guaranteed protected under the law.
Many American micro ethnographies share the same resistance to national law just as the new International Criminal Courts defy U.S. Intervention.
Some American subcultures regard local customs and beliefs as precedence over expressed national law such as Native American Tribal Councils.
Nevertheless, Merry compiled 20 years of ethnographies in the lower courts and poorer communities of Hawaii despite their wide ideological divergence, “all
approaches focused on the entrepreneurial creating of the self. At the heart of the competition among rights, religion, and community was a shared practice
of self-creations: a technology associated with the creation of the modern subject.” She found that these lower courts adapted to the national law of
therapeutic discourse, likely for the same reason of social dysfunction found in poor, less educated groups in main land America.
“This is a discourse drawn from helping professionals, one which talks of behavior as environmentally caused rather than as based on individual fault.
Crowding, stress, or low levels of tolerance for frustration-rather than inborn evil, lack of consideration, or lack of respect- are blamed for the offensive
behavior. Offensive behavior is socially caused, not the result of individual will. “He is not well. I don’t want him to go to jail; I just want him to get help.” The
model of illness and disease, which describes difficulties without attaching fault or blame, is the dominant explanation for behavior. Alcoholism, mental
illness, or “acting out,” and emotional immaturity tag this discourse.”
Merry points out that legal consciousness can be changed as plaintiffs run into contradictions to their personal conceptions of justice (Merry p5).Traditional
customs, values, and beliefs, that make up the legal consciousness can be more dominant in a court of law as it overrides or takes precedence over
expressed law. The overwhelming belief is a natural or commonsense justice that must be obeyed such as the war crimes tribunal of Slobodan Milosevic in
the Hague.
Even great superpowers such as the United States can not persuade the courts, with money, embargo's, or political clout if the courtroom consciousness
believes its actions are just.
Unfortunately, not all my worldly travels where joyful experiences without sad circumstances and if it where the grace of God and miracles in my life, I would
not be here today to tell my story. A miracle is a positive event in our lives that seems to oppose the laws of physics or the natural order of things. Perhaps
beyond the realm of human reasoning that gives hope in times of despair or uncertainty.
There have been times in my life when some people seemed so commonplace in my daily affairs, they seem to be non-existence or completely invisible. At
times, cultural groups seem to ride in a perceptual blind spot of social recognition such as the Fall of 1992, between jobs living in Thailand as I came upon a
group of people while walking the beach that not only worked but lived on the sea who still today I call Sea Gypsies; nor did I think in late twentieth century
there still existed pirates on the high seas. Could it be that there is an everyday ordinary common god, as close as the invisible nose on my face, working
miracles in my life?
It was just another bad exit from another third world misfortune, “Thirty Days and a wake up call” was all it really said, the twelve page ex-pat contract
describing the terms and conditions of a work aboard agreement for a U.S. wetback seeking livable wages outside his only country. Why did I expect more
than a blackball one way ticket to Hong Kong, a pounding alcohol-induced migraine that beat to the rhythm of “Kum Bay Ya” as a group of graduating
hippies, class of ‘1992’ sang and clapped their hands seated together in the back on wooden benches of our 1930’s 1st class passenger rail car,
encouraging everybody to join in with the singing.
In response, I turned in my seat and look back toward the group and all it took was one glance at my pale face, blood shot eyes, and the music stopped as
everyone’s eyes rolled to the view of passing scenery through dirty windows, discarded plastic bags, garbage, and sewer-soaked rice patties as if it were
the mountain scenery of the Italian leg of a trip on the Orient Express. Then Bam, it hit me, an epiphany! How much did I hoard away in my Hong Kong bank
account? It must have been the glow of inspiration that set the whole car off to singing once again, “Kum Bay Ya my lord, Kum Bay Ya…!”
The money, that’s what it was all about wasn’t it? No, if it was the money I would have spent it. Now I remember, I am on my way back to the U.S., that’s the
depressing part, a one way ticket back to the USSR. No, it’s not the land of the free my father fought for at the battle of Chosin Reservoir, which by the way,
all he has to show for it is a lift of the shirt to show three bullet holes through the chest. When I talk to him again, I m sure he going to tell me the Veterans
Administration turned down his disability pension again and repeat the story of being stranded on a frozen lake as he watched his fellow comrades get
mowed down by Chinese gun fire, U.S. Generals, still today, say did not cross the Chinese border into Korea.
That’s it, it is the money, just enough for a bungalow on a beach on an island in the South China Sea, somewhere, anywhere, I wondered. “How far is
Thailand from Hong Kong?” I ask my better half, still staring me down for my three day alcohol binge as she packed our belongings to leave China before
pouring me on this train. “Bad exit O’Dell,” that’s all she said, then chimed in with the foreign exchange students, “Kum Bay Ya my lord, Kum Bay Ya…!”
“Remember our honeymoon stay in Phuket Thailand last year?” She refused to acknowledge my presence, so I continued, “You know, you remember, you
got in an argument with old Frenchie, the stuck-up hotel proprietor and we left the next morning on a ancient bi-plane to Koh Samui Island and had the most
wonderful time, stayed there for two weeks for the price of a one night stay in Phuket!” “I am not flying on a bi-plane again!” she said, and chimed in again,
‘“Kum Bay Ya my lord,…!” “Let’s take a train to Sarantoni Thailand and then a small boat to Koh Samui and rent a bungalow on the beach and see how long
we can stay until I land another contract, say maybe Hungary or Saudi Arabia,” I suggested what she had already planned.
My mind satisfied that my sins of the past were now water under the bridge, I jet to the ancient past, wondering if it were true that elephants actually can
swim and routinely made the trip from main land Thailand to the scores of surrounding islands, swimming low in the water with their trunks high, taking in air
going places accessible only to me by boat or aircraft. Then bam, it hit me, the original motion picture version of “Moby Dick” as the lad leaves home with
buttons in his pocket, his mother hands him the family Bible, and by faith followed the nearest stream to the sea where he found adventure signing on to a
whaling ship. The words of Melville’s “Moby Dick” first published in 1851 is much more inspiring, “Take almost any path you please and ten to one it carries
you down into a dale, and leaves you there next to a pool by a stream. There is a Magic in it. Let the most absent minded of men be plunged in to the
deepest of reveries – stand that man on his legs, set his feet a going, he will infallibly lead you to water… (Melville).” The sunlight dimmed as the train came
to a stop in Hong Kong station and we arrived at our hotel within minutes by cab.
The next morning we boarded a Thai Airways Boeing 737 on our way to Bangkok to transfer by cab to the domestic train station with prepaid first class
sleeper tickets to Sarantoni waiting for us. We waited, and waited, then finally about 7 pm a station attendant told us the sleeper was canceled, but we
could use the tickets for bench seats on the last passenger car leaving the station at midnight or wait until 3:00 am for the private sleeper. Fortunately, my
traveling partner had a first aid kit disguised as a carry on makeup case, two Dixie cups, napkins for toilet paper, a ream of saltine crackers, a wedge of
imported cheese, and a bottle of gin, so we decided to wait for the 3 am sleeper.
The station was packed, standing room only, but we eventually found a place on the steps to the platform to sit and have a snack while we waited. My
partner unfolded a silk handkerchief, laid it on the dirty steps and sat down gracefully next to me and said, “One of those guys in the maroon robs is starring
at you again… don’t turn around,” she said. I whispered back, “I know. They have been watching me all day. I can feel them burning the back of my neck
with their stares.” A few moments past, then I added, “These monks don’t seem as friendly as the Buddhist in Tibet or maybe it’s just me?” I turned back at
to take a look at my stalker and when my eyes hit his we knew each other instantly that he’s concerned we’re several bandits casing us out for some quick
cash armed with knives.”
Then in the native tongue, the station speaker announced, “All aboard for Sarantoni. I grab my partner’s arms and said, “Let’s catch this train now, forget
the sleeper.” We stood and she bent down to get her make up bag and I pulled her hard toward the now rolling train and said, “Leave It.” We both jumped
aboard the moving packed bench passenger train with standing room only, grabbed a standing strap secured to the ceiling of the car and moved on to
Sarantoni in the night as I look out the window for my would-be attackers.
Some time passed until a bench was available and my traveling companion, a little on the short side, lay down to sleep as I stepped out on to the platform
between rail cars and smoked. I watch the shadows of the jungle passing by, the silence, then some sound by a creepy thing, then silence again, wondering
about the Bengal tiger that has haunted my dreams with its sudden attacks only to awaken in the safety of my bedroom. Maybe this is the moment, maybe
he is out there waiting for me or worse, sprawled in a tree branch waiting for the train to pass as he lunges at me and we tumble to the jungle floor. Well, on
the bright side, he can only kill me once, or was I dreaming again? Time rolled by quickly as I stared at the shadows until daylight broke and a beautiful
landscape of high mountains with sides that shot straight up like the desert in the Midwest but covered with jungle foliage and occasional coconut tree.
Daylight just broke the horizon over the South China Sea as we bumped and clanged to a halt at the small rail station of Sarantoni, a fishing village that
resembled the Mississippi delta but the Thai faces and colorful fishing boats seemed out of place. These people, I coined sea gypsies, live on their boats
and beach wherever they please for an occasional reunion, the men sewing holes in the torn nets as they dry in the sun and the women chartering around
a communal fire roasting shell fish and boiling fish soup. Then once again, an epiphany, PIRATES!
Yes pirates, a decade ago they were unheard of outside of fiction novels, a few months from our departure from the Orient, a fellow ex-pat found temporary
work aboard a surviving boat and told me they had to stand guard for fear of pirate attacks; especially at ports in Indonesia. I could understand more easily
now, getting among the sea gypsies that lived a free communal life without any documentation or patriotism to hold them. We boarded a small wooden ferry
for the one hour trip to the virgin island (at that time 1992) of Koh Samui.
We secured a palm leaf- roofed bungalow made of coconut lumber, with a small kitchen, bedroom living room area, a small shower, not hot water, and a
seat less toilet, the kind you run into in Asia that consist of a porcelain plate about 3-4 inches thick flat on the floor resembling foot pads that one stands,
squats, and uses a small water hose to squirt a stream said to be more sanitary then toilet tissue, which by the way was a hard to come by commodity in
those days. What a bargain, eight U.S. Dollars a day for a house by the sea and it included TV satellite. “Mash” and other American sitcoms were still
running and we watched nightly at 7:00pm sharp Monday through Friday.
As stated, the shower water in our bungalow was not heated and even in this tropical environment it was freezing cold- most foreign visitors just bathed in
the clean, blue, salty sea that was much warmer or seemed that way when you up jump in head first. This is where I met Bert, a large dog of unknown
breeding that would swim out to me and dunk my head under for fun, which was irritating, but once people started calling Bert my dog, families, children,
locals complained constantly about Bert and kindly asked me to control my dog. My usual response was, “That is not my dog, see he speaks Thai and I can
not utter a word of it!” Nevertheless, I did not feed Bert who followed me wherever I went and stay at some other bungalow, I thought, in the evenings.
At that time, American and European ex-pats spent their time, swimming, drinking, and barbecuing Thai Style on coconut charcoal which I could never
successfully start and paid a young school girl that lived in the area to start mine- then one day she just said “no” just like that and I resorted to using
gasoline from my little Italian style-looking motor scooter which was also eight dollars a day rental. Another pastime was playing chess or at least we proved
that we knew the name and how to move each piece and of course beach combing. No matter what time of day or night if I wanted to walk the beach Bert
would come out of nowhere and he if saw somebody in the water as we walked along the shore he would go out and sink him as the swimmer would yell
back, “Your Dog, control your dog.” I would yell back. “It’s not my dog,” until the small population had a communal meeting about MY Dogs’ behavior. I
thought his behavior pretty fine as we explored virgin white sand beaches.
Anyways, not much to do on an Island in the South China Sea fishing for a job, any place but the U.S. Don’t get me wrong but I hit the job market in the
recession of 1975 after Vietnam, and could never make monthly ends meet no matter how prestigious or technical the job was which in my case was Jet
Mechanic. So, you go where the jobs and money are if it does not come to you which was Asia and Europe for me during the Clinton years, then a disability
put me on the rosters of Social Security U.S land locked and nothing left to do but go back to school, which I did and graduated with the “Fall Class of
Economic Crisis 2008” University of Texas.
Each, Morning, Bert and I would comb the beach and each day we would extend the trip a little longer and occasionally we would run into obstacles that
blocked a direct route by beach and the undertow was a powerful tug. One day, Bert led me to his owners who I first called Sea Gypsies in a kind way of
course. I tried to explain that their dog’ behavior is getting me in trouble with my neighbors and a young girl passing the other direction and not a part of the
Sea Gypsies group said, “Our dog? Why we see your friend Bert always with you?” “You, that bathes with dogs!”
The sea gypsies ignored the conversation gathered here and there around at least eight thirty foot hand carved [word of the timber that stretches from bow
to stern] and the plants pegged or dove cut without nails, fishing boats which they lived their whole lives with an occasional beach reunion for weather or a
repair of fishing nets or to trade the catch with the local fish mongers. The term gypsies came from a Thai trying to tell me in broken English that these
people live off the sea and have no place they call their home, and I said, “You mean like sea gypsies,” and he said “yes, yes, yes of course.”
I have known of many other cultures that live in boats, such as the east coast of China, and was told that the daughters never step foot on land outside of
marriage. And there are cultures that live on junks, such as the mooring of Hong Kong, mostly unusable except they do float as floating communities forever
moored in the same place which are these peoples’ homes because they can not afford an apartment or a home. I guess we could include the Peruvians of
Lake Titicaca who had been evicted from their homes in Northern Peru and the only space available was floating refuse such as plants, dead trees, logs
and mostly grass, called the floating islands of Peru. There developed a floating Island building technique that is wonderfully developed over time as more
people, became skilled in building these man-made Islands that were evicted from their land because they could not afford the rent.
The sea going vessels in China may be the homes of the fisherman but they are registered and have special visas, and government leniencies to fulfill a
function on the coast, be it fishing, towing, transporting goods, or rescue to name a few. And the poor moored in the Hong Kong harbors would really be
considered house boats because that is the boats only function. I guess we cold call the arctic Eskimos Sea Gypsies but today they do not live on their
boats, they live in sheltered communities with postal address and electricity; although there is a connection between the Eskimos and the Thai Sea Gypsies,
they consider the sea their garden and their God or a better word would be Divinity. Of course my preference would be universal self because the early Inuit
and Thai Sea Gypsies knew no distinction or separation between themselves and the world about them. The earliest evangelistic missionary to the arctic
were surprised to find out when translating words from the Inuit vocabulary, the name or term for ‘God” was non existent. They had a difficult time trying to
establish a God in a sense where he gets involved with everyday affairs, which include good and bad aspects of an absolute Deity much of which is tailored
by Christian beliefs.
With these beliefs along came the idea of Animism. The concept of religious ritual grew out of beliefs in nature as a result of human reasoning. The western
Ideologies of human development that support animism confuses ritual and religion with the development of the human intellect. We know little of the
religious patterns before the appearance of art; however animism is believed to be established before the pre-pottery stage of early humans. The point is,
those that live off the sea did not develop from primitive minds; they developed techniques and tools to a point of self sufficiency which to the Sea Gypsies
and the pre-missionary Eskimo is Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Balance, Excellence, Medical Care, protection from pirates, government control, and
family unity can be found in and on the sea; “there is a magic in it” as Melville would say but it is really a highly developed communal living that has insured
the Sea Gypsies’ survival from the first human feet that trod the earth.
Western behavioral sciences sometimes approach a culture or race of people such as head hunters of the Amazon and Huaquero’s, Peruvian grave
robbers action as taboo. Most discouraging, is archaeologist Max Uhle, who was the first person to scientifically excavate cemeteries containing Nasca
polychrome style of pottery. The first recorded artifacts of Rio Grande de Nasca were published as archaeological excavations by Max Uhle, although
discounted in 1999 as purchased goods from Huaqueros by Donald A Proulx of the University of Massachusetts. Huaquero’s or Peruvian grave robbers
have been practicing the ritual of locating and uncovering ancient graves that may hold gold and polly chromate pottery, some of the most expensive
pottery on the black market.
The Huaquero’s religious ritual as explained by a local to me on site in Nasca Peru April 2004. The Huaquero’s Grave Robbers religious ritual grew out of
beliefs in capitalism, not nature as a result of human reasoning. Partly and indirectly encouraged by collectors, the deed has become ritualized as a rite of
passage and honor to the dead. Most male citizens of Nasca participate in grave robbing some time in their lives!
Some cultural traditions such as grave robbing are taboo to most but for others their rituals are a rite of passage that involves the whole community in the
desert grave yards of Nasca Peru and a old tradition across Peru that is no longer practice but the evidence can be seen along the road side as open
graves and paintings with open graves that seem to represent the resurrection of the soul from the temporal body that is now dead and buried.
outside of peripheral perception or beyond the limits of human reasoning that gives hope in times of despair or uncertainty.
Take a moment and think of all the people who are so commonplace in your daily affairs; they seem to be non- existent or completely invisible. At times,
gender, race, and cultural groups seem to ride in a perceptual blind spot of social recognition. Gender is another tender blind spot of social recognition.
Gender is an identity role by which a person is recognized by himself or others.
Gender is the way we act, a behavior that is viewed as feminine or masculine by a particular culture, society, or group regardless of biological sex
determinations. In some societies, gender can be recognized as both, such as the term ‘two-spirits’ used by American Natives (notes). Conversely, in some
societies such as Tibetan Buddhist tradition, gender can be recognized as neither or gender neutral.
Nevertheless, gender is culturally determined by the way an individual identifies with others as a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ who are biologically determined in the
womb as genitalia develops from a sexually neutral fetus. So it makes good sense that gender has nothing to do with biological sex and gender is
misidentified as behavioral characteristics determined by biological sex. In other words, the way a person behaves could be based on a weaker sex
dominated by a stronger sex in relation to the way we adapt to the world biologically and culturally.
Not long ago, head hunting was the rave amongst Amazon clans which gave way to deculturalization by a society that knew its strength by corresponding
with other heads. In the same time period, a male dominated anthropologist rewrote theories that excluded the view of women of anthropology who know
their strength by using their own heads.
An encyclopedic definition of Anthropology is “the study of humanity” and that study is by way of ethnography or a compilation of observation reports
(Anthropology). We can not ignore the earliest biblical story tellers as ethnographers and these stories are preserved in Hebrew text as the first books of
laws that prescribe behavior, the way we act, and punishment for acting contrary to that prescription. No doubt religious beliefs that prescribe a natural
woman and a dominant man tend to be more prejudiced toward sexual alternative roles such as in today’s America.
Although Americans view themselves as a society of diversity and sexual indifference they are probably the least tolerant to alternative gender roles and
this could be in part based on a false belief that these roles are not ‘natural’, or more especially, violate traditional beliefs. The notion that women and men
are essentially different or compliment each other, constitute the idea of the natural woman and dominant male cultural consciousness that is based on
moral beliefs either prescribe from, or culturally developed from tradition. The biases to alternative gender roles are not religious biases, they are
developed from cultural associations that define what is ‘feminine’ and what is ‘masculine’ and how each should act.
We know American society as a whole is less tolerant to alternative gender roles and we can even say show prejudice to those that behave contrary to
their biological sex by contrast and comparison with other societies of the world. Anthropologists do not understand why the notion of the natural woman is
so prevalent world-wide but this does not mean that women of all ages played a lesser role to the dominance of men based on biological sex; nor does it
predict a male dominated society in the future based on biological sex. Nevertheless, global attitudes toward alternative gender roles seem more tolerant
than American bias to the same and to the extreme of legislating man made laws that forbid the behavior.
Likewise, societies that are accepting or more open to alternative gender roles such as Native Americans and Buddhist cultures seem more tolerant
because their moral belief systems are more tolerant to alternative gender roles. These beliefs can be understood as a disregard to a social morality similar
to the system of philosophy known as Confucianism which grew from the Buddhist tradition. The anatomical similarities of Native Americans are biological
links to Asian ancestry and could also be a causal relation to the same Buddhist ideology in which Confucianism developed.
Confucius seems to think we should be concerned with what is personally satisfying because a satisfying life is living in a society or group (Ren) by way of
ritual (Li). Relations are crucial with Confucius’ ethical methodology. Confucius rejected the idea of morality as a set of rules or imperatives; if ethics is Ren
by way of Li, then we can not make a judgment on another person’s behavior or say it is morally wrong to live in a certain way.
The idea of the natural woman is still prevalent in these societies and oppression of women including servitude and public beatings can not be ignored;
however, gender alternative roles are acceptable because gender alternatives are a way another person acts and does not threaten established order.
No person including my self is alien to moral convictions and my own biases seem more tolerant to the idea of alternative gender roles because I believe,
even if that belief is false, that gender is essential to the individual before conception and is naturally agreeable to the native American ‘two-spirit” ideology
and can not contradict the Buddhist notion of a gender neutral before birth. With that said, I identify myself as a recovering genderistic, someone who has
shown prejudice to the idea of alternative gender roles, and I contribute that bias to social construction because I was born and raised in the American
society that promotes or prescribes these biases.
The documentary ‘The times of Harvey Milk’ came as a surprise to me, to now understand that I had lived through a major cultural event and knew nothing
of the assassination of Harvey Milk. The most influential public figure advocating for gay rights and founder of the gay movement.
Perhaps Harvey Milk’s death had been obscured by the headlines that featured Jones Town Guyana where 900 followers of the Peoples Temple lead by
Jim Jones had committed suicide in hope of meeting together in a better afterlife on November 18, 1978. However, after a little research I find the press
gave full coverage of the assassination of Harvey Milk along side my daily reads of the Johns town tragedy. Most likely, my ignorance of the political
upheaval in San Francisco was rooted in my small Texas town customs that developed my values, assumptions, and beliefs about the world which included
a common false belief that homosexuals are sexual deviants and the worst of them preyed on children.
Harvey Bernard Milk, assassinated in the San Francisco Court House along with Mayor George Moscone was not a sexual deviant but a hero not only
amongst the gay community but for all peoples in America who face persecution in a society based on common law which shapes not only beliefs but law
and punishment. According to the Times Magazine, Harvey Milk was:
"the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet ".As the self-described "Mayor of Castro Street" he was active
during a time of substantial change in San Francisco politics and increasing visibility of gay and lesbian people in American society. He was assassinated in
1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by then recently-resigned city supervisor Dan White, whose relatively mild sentence for the murders led to the
White Night Riots and eventually the abolishment of diminished capacity defense in California (Wikipedia The Times of Harvey Milk)."
Public and private acts of homosexuality was a criminal offense in most states during Milk’s brief position on the Board of supervisors of the City of San
Francisco until it was finally challenged in 1984. Dorothy Bracey highlights this Supreme Court case in her text Exploring Law and Culture:
"Lisa Brower (1994) demonstrates that Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), in which the supreme Court of the United States decided that the right to privacy did not
extend to consensual sodomy, was one of the factors leading to a new stage in gay and lesbian activism( Bracey p. 26)."
The term deviant is usually a reference to an offensive person or even a criminal, but in its literal sense deviant simply means, ‘different from traditional
norm (Encarta Dictionary).’ The American judicial system is based on common law which historically considers traditional values of a dominating culture or
group. Bracey further elaborates the impact that customs and tradition have on law which in many cases creates a pluralistic applications based on
tolerance depending on the denominate group of a particular culture.
The dominant culture that shaped San Francisco values and beliefs in the late 1970’s were personified in city supervisor Dan White, a previously serving
police officer elected by the community to serve on the same City Board of his victims killed in cold bold on November 27, 1978 (Wikipedia The Times of
Harvey Milk). White received a light sentence based on an acceptance of a “Twinkie Defense” by a preselected group of jurors from White’s community.
Compassion was shown by entertaining the possibility of insanity by way of junk food intake which Dan white had been indulging weeks before the murders.
These jurors share the same common false belief as people from my small town in Texas, that homosexuals are sexual deviants and the worst of them
preyed on children. The jurors in this case gave White a light 5-year sentence for double political assassination. However, San Francisco was much more
tolerant to the gay community at the time because a large minority lived peacefully in Harvey Milk’s district. I would hate to think what the outcome would
have been if the same tragedy occurred in a small town in Texas with absolutely no tolerance such as where I lived in 1978. It would not surprise me if Dan
White would have been acquitted for ridding neighborhood of sexual deviants which would include Mayor Moscone for conspiring with the homosexuals.
The jury’s decision was not accepted as justice by San Francisco citizens who considered Dan White to be the worst of social deviants, a cold blooded
calculating killer. After the trial, a riot broke out by both heterosexual and homosexual citizens that brought havoc to the bay area by breaking out windows
in the court house, destroying public property, and the group is well remembered for systematically burning every police car within a torch throw. The riot
aftermath found relief in gay activism that has led over time to a high level of acceptance of homosexual relationships in all communities across American
which eventually spurred congress to remove laws based on sexual orientation and create new laws to protect gay citizens.
Bracey’s introductions to custom and tradition explain how values and assumptions can force pluralistic applications of expressed law:
“Values refer to things that are prized and sought after or disdained and avoided. Words such as good and bad are often associated with values. Some
cultural groups value rationality and self control; they often perceive alcohol as a threat these qualities. Others may value conviviality, while still others value
occasion on which inhibitions are dropped and the mind reaches beyond its ordinary state. Again we would expect that these cultural groups would differ in
respect to their laws about alcohol. (Bracey p. 2-3)”
Bracey’s example of alcohol tolerance is relevant to the content of her introductory chapters but the double-political assassinations at the San Francisco
Court House on November 27, 1978 shows how deeply rooted values and beliefs actually are in all societies and can carry the weight to modify expressed
law to the point of justified murder by reason of junk food insanity. So how can any society base justice on its norm and punish those that deviate outside
the expected traditional behavior of a community? The fact is, law is not justice but a set of rules that are dominated by the ruling class of power within a
particular culture.
If we use the term ‘deviant’ to refer to criminals or those that violate established law, then in not all cases is the law morally just. If the term ‘deviant’ is also
used to describe some moral disregard, then we are faced with a paradox of values and beliefs. Deferent cultures have contradicting ideas of what is ‘good’
and what is ‘bad.’ However all cultures have some overlapping idea about core moral beliefs such as murder. And yes, cases can be found where groups of
people encourage murder as perhaps a rite of passage for cannibal societies. But when we talk about expressed law, we talk about order amongst civil
societies even if it is an unwritten social contract. In my opinion, the deviants that had a part in the assassination of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone
include the community that supported Dan White although at the time their values were normal customary beliefs based on long standing tradition.
As a global power, the United States takes the position as the perfect social model, mentor to the world. However, when countries take to the American
democratic form of government and the outcomes of jurisprudence is contrary to American interest, the country is denounce by trade embargoes, debt
collection, and denied financial aid. American ideologies such as human rights and self-sufficiency are only as good as the court rulings that benefit the
political alliances of United States.
The film documentary "In search of International Justice" is probably the first critical documentary revealing the dualistic application of American law as it
used in national vs. International criminal courts (In search). Bullfrog productions distributes the film which is a documentary of post war world II tribunal,
“Sixty years ago, with the Nuremberg charter, the world first said "Never Again." But these proved empty words for the victims of the Cold War years. The
Superpowers couldn't agree on a universal code to punish war criminals. Tyrants ruled with impunity (Bullfrog Films).”
Judy Jackson, producer of the film, is well known for her documentaries of tyrant bureaucracies of death and human rights. The documentary incorporates
the skills of a forensic anthropologist as they search for the bodies of executed families members in the Balkans by orders of Slobodan Milosevic president
of the Former Yugoslavia (Jackson).”
Milosevic maneuvers through the allegations during pretrial, using an American defense strategy termed ‘the state war’, but he is put on trial anyways for
war crimes against humanity, cross examined by Louis Arbour as well as family, friends, and witnesses, peculiar to International Criminal Court established
in the Hague in 2002; the participation of court room guests would be unheard of in an American criminal court.
Milosevic responds to the acquisitions using an American habeas corpus defense, where are the bodies defense, or to say, no bodies, then murder did not
took place. However, the court room is full of emotionally charged witnesses and he cringes to their responses, ‘You ordered them killed, you know where
they are buried.” Anthropologists find many of the bodies buried under green bands of wild grass, the seeds dormant for ages, activated by the
topographical turning of soil to bury the bodies. Many of the body parts where found near the burial site, laying on the surface decomposed where they
were murdered.
Update 5/26/2011
War crimes fugitive Mladic arrested in Serbia
40 minutes ago - AP 1:23 | 0 views
Ratko Mladic, former Bosnian Serb commander who's been on the run for many years, has been arrested in Serbia, according to an announcement from
the country's president. (May 26)
Citation: http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/war-crimes-fugitive-mladic-arrested-in-serbia-25354040
Milosevic is an international banker and very familiar with American national law. His attorney would have been wise to use this approach in an American
justice system that allows for diplomatic immunities, especially if the criminal is tied to the United States banking dignitaries who could have also been
indicted. The United States is strongly opposed to the new international justice system because the legal consciousness ignores what American legalities
regard as common law of established precedence such as the German defense in Nuremberg, “There is no law in Germany, expressed or implied, that the
act of killing Jews is illegal.” This American/ British defense brought the Nuremberg Hearings into a 16 day judicial break, while American legal experts tried
to figure out how to prosecute a law that had never been established or tried (Mental note of test question in high school 1969v).”
Further, the international tribunal uses a different language of law in International criminal courts; whereas, American justice is revenge and punishment,
while the Hague court hearing’s understanding of justice, or the legal consciousness, is bringing peace to the survivors; knowing that their loved ones have
been found and closure can now begin to heal their emotional trauma. In contemporary times, United States criminal courts may have adapted these rules
of law from the International Criminal Court, but the survivors in American courts are only allowed to vent their emotional resentment, after the accused has
been tried and condemned.
Jackson’s documentary moves to the International Criminal Court of Northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I was surprised to see
children abducted into war as soldiers. American judicial systems regard minors as the responsibility of state, if they are orphaned or abandoned. The basic
needs of the child such as food, medicine, and education are basic human rights of children born in the United States. However, in Africa, orphaned
children were on their own while they bonded together forging for food in the surrounding jungle in the daytime, and hiding in safety under bridges and
structures of the city for safety at night. Although many of their parents were killed in war, the surviving adults took little responsibility for the orphaned
children.
Sally Merry might say, the American legal consciousness of democracy, natural rights, and respect, is very different than the legal consciousness the United
States promotes on the international market. She defines rights as conceptualized, not as belonging to an individual, “but as being embedded in
relationships and constitutive of these relationships (Merry p5.)” Americans believe they have natural rights that are guaranteed protected under the law.
Many American micro ethnographies share the same resistance to national law just as the new International Criminal Courts defy U.S. Intervention.
Some American subcultures regard local customs and beliefs as precedence over expressed national law such as Native American Tribal Councils.
Nevertheless, Merry compiled 20 years of ethnographies in the lower courts and poorer communities of Hawaii despite their wide ideological divergence, “all
approaches focused on the entrepreneurial creating of the self. At the heart of the competition among rights, religion, and community was a shared practice
of self-creations: a technology associated with the creation of the modern subject.” She found that these lower courts adapted to the national law of
therapeutic discourse, likely for the same reason of social dysfunction found in poor, less educated groups in main land America.
“This is a discourse drawn from helping professionals, one which talks of behavior as environmentally caused rather than as based on individual fault.
Crowding, stress, or low levels of tolerance for frustration-rather than inborn evil, lack of consideration, or lack of respect- are blamed for the offensive
behavior. Offensive behavior is socially caused, not the result of individual will. “He is not well. I don’t want him to go to jail; I just want him to get help.” The
model of illness and disease, which describes difficulties without attaching fault or blame, is the dominant explanation for behavior. Alcoholism, mental
illness, or “acting out,” and emotional immaturity tag this discourse.”
Merry points out that legal consciousness can be changed as plaintiffs run into contradictions to their personal conceptions of justice (Merry p5).Traditional
customs, values, and beliefs, that make up the legal consciousness can be more dominant in a court of law as it overrides or takes precedence over
expressed law. The overwhelming belief is a natural or commonsense justice that must be obeyed such as the war crimes tribunal of Slobodan Milosevic in
the Hague.
Even great superpowers such as the United States can not persuade the courts, with money, embargo's, or political clout if the courtroom consciousness
believes its actions are just.
Unfortunately, not all my worldly travels where joyful experiences without sad circumstances and if it where the grace of God and miracles in my life, I would
not be here today to tell my story. A miracle is a positive event in our lives that seems to oppose the laws of physics or the natural order of things. Perhaps
beyond the realm of human reasoning that gives hope in times of despair or uncertainty.
There have been times in my life when some people seemed so commonplace in my daily affairs, they seem to be non-existence or completely invisible. At
times, cultural groups seem to ride in a perceptual blind spot of social recognition such as the Fall of 1992, between jobs living in Thailand as I came upon a
group of people while walking the beach that not only worked but lived on the sea who still today I call Sea Gypsies; nor did I think in late twentieth century
there still existed pirates on the high seas. Could it be that there is an everyday ordinary common god, as close as the invisible nose on my face, working
miracles in my life?
It was just another bad exit from another third world misfortune, “Thirty Days and a wake up call” was all it really said, the twelve page ex-pat contract
describing the terms and conditions of a work aboard agreement for a U.S. wetback seeking livable wages outside his only country. Why did I expect more
than a blackball one way ticket to Hong Kong, a pounding alcohol-induced migraine that beat to the rhythm of “Kum Bay Ya” as a group of graduating
hippies, class of ‘1992’ sang and clapped their hands seated together in the back on wooden benches of our 1930’s 1st class passenger rail car,
encouraging everybody to join in with the singing.
In response, I turned in my seat and look back toward the group and all it took was one glance at my pale face, blood shot eyes, and the music stopped as
everyone’s eyes rolled to the view of passing scenery through dirty windows, discarded plastic bags, garbage, and sewer-soaked rice patties as if it were
the mountain scenery of the Italian leg of a trip on the Orient Express. Then Bam, it hit me, an epiphany! How much did I hoard away in my Hong Kong bank
account? It must have been the glow of inspiration that set the whole car off to singing once again, “Kum Bay Ya my lord, Kum Bay Ya…!”
The money, that’s what it was all about wasn’t it? No, if it was the money I would have spent it. Now I remember, I am on my way back to the U.S., that’s the
depressing part, a one way ticket back to the USSR. No, it’s not the land of the free my father fought for at the battle of Chosin Reservoir, which by the way,
all he has to show for it is a lift of the shirt to show three bullet holes through the chest. When I talk to him again, I m sure he going to tell me the Veterans
Administration turned down his disability pension again and repeat the story of being stranded on a frozen lake as he watched his fellow comrades get
mowed down by Chinese gun fire, U.S. Generals, still today, say did not cross the Chinese border into Korea.
That’s it, it is the money, just enough for a bungalow on a beach on an island in the South China Sea, somewhere, anywhere, I wondered. “How far is
Thailand from Hong Kong?” I ask my better half, still staring me down for my three day alcohol binge as she packed our belongings to leave China before
pouring me on this train. “Bad exit O’Dell,” that’s all she said, then chimed in with the foreign exchange students, “Kum Bay Ya my lord, Kum Bay Ya…!”
“Remember our honeymoon stay in Phuket Thailand last year?” She refused to acknowledge my presence, so I continued, “You know, you remember, you
got in an argument with old Frenchie, the stuck-up hotel proprietor and we left the next morning on a ancient bi-plane to Koh Samui Island and had the most
wonderful time, stayed there for two weeks for the price of a one night stay in Phuket!” “I am not flying on a bi-plane again!” she said, and chimed in again,
‘“Kum Bay Ya my lord,…!” “Let’s take a train to Sarantoni Thailand and then a small boat to Koh Samui and rent a bungalow on the beach and see how long
we can stay until I land another contract, say maybe Hungary or Saudi Arabia,” I suggested what she had already planned.
My mind satisfied that my sins of the past were now water under the bridge, I jet to the ancient past, wondering if it were true that elephants actually can
swim and routinely made the trip from main land Thailand to the scores of surrounding islands, swimming low in the water with their trunks high, taking in air
going places accessible only to me by boat or aircraft. Then bam, it hit me, the original motion picture version of “Moby Dick” as the lad leaves home with
buttons in his pocket, his mother hands him the family Bible, and by faith followed the nearest stream to the sea where he found adventure signing on to a
whaling ship. The words of Melville’s “Moby Dick” first published in 1851 is much more inspiring, “Take almost any path you please and ten to one it carries
you down into a dale, and leaves you there next to a pool by a stream. There is a Magic in it. Let the most absent minded of men be plunged in to the
deepest of reveries – stand that man on his legs, set his feet a going, he will infallibly lead you to water… (Melville).” The sunlight dimmed as the train came
to a stop in Hong Kong station and we arrived at our hotel within minutes by cab.
The next morning we boarded a Thai Airways Boeing 737 on our way to Bangkok to transfer by cab to the domestic train station with prepaid first class
sleeper tickets to Sarantoni waiting for us. We waited, and waited, then finally about 7 pm a station attendant told us the sleeper was canceled, but we
could use the tickets for bench seats on the last passenger car leaving the station at midnight or wait until 3:00 am for the private sleeper. Fortunately, my
traveling partner had a first aid kit disguised as a carry on makeup case, two Dixie cups, napkins for toilet paper, a ream of saltine crackers, a wedge of
imported cheese, and a bottle of gin, so we decided to wait for the 3 am sleeper.
The station was packed, standing room only, but we eventually found a place on the steps to the platform to sit and have a snack while we waited. My
partner unfolded a silk handkerchief, laid it on the dirty steps and sat down gracefully next to me and said, “One of those guys in the maroon robs is starring
at you again… don’t turn around,” she said. I whispered back, “I know. They have been watching me all day. I can feel them burning the back of my neck
with their stares.” A few moments past, then I added, “These monks don’t seem as friendly as the Buddhist in Tibet or maybe it’s just me?” I turned back at
to take a look at my stalker and when my eyes hit his we knew each other instantly that he’s concerned we’re several bandits casing us out for some quick
cash armed with knives.”
Then in the native tongue, the station speaker announced, “All aboard for Sarantoni. I grab my partner’s arms and said, “Let’s catch this train now, forget
the sleeper.” We stood and she bent down to get her make up bag and I pulled her hard toward the now rolling train and said, “Leave It.” We both jumped
aboard the moving packed bench passenger train with standing room only, grabbed a standing strap secured to the ceiling of the car and moved on to
Sarantoni in the night as I look out the window for my would-be attackers.
Some time passed until a bench was available and my traveling companion, a little on the short side, lay down to sleep as I stepped out on to the platform
between rail cars and smoked. I watch the shadows of the jungle passing by, the silence, then some sound by a creepy thing, then silence again, wondering
about the Bengal tiger that has haunted my dreams with its sudden attacks only to awaken in the safety of my bedroom. Maybe this is the moment, maybe
he is out there waiting for me or worse, sprawled in a tree branch waiting for the train to pass as he lunges at me and we tumble to the jungle floor. Well, on
the bright side, he can only kill me once, or was I dreaming again? Time rolled by quickly as I stared at the shadows until daylight broke and a beautiful
landscape of high mountains with sides that shot straight up like the desert in the Midwest but covered with jungle foliage and occasional coconut tree.
Daylight just broke the horizon over the South China Sea as we bumped and clanged to a halt at the small rail station of Sarantoni, a fishing village that
resembled the Mississippi delta but the Thai faces and colorful fishing boats seemed out of place. These people, I coined sea gypsies, live on their boats
and beach wherever they please for an occasional reunion, the men sewing holes in the torn nets as they dry in the sun and the women chartering around
a communal fire roasting shell fish and boiling fish soup. Then once again, an epiphany, PIRATES!
Yes pirates, a decade ago they were unheard of outside of fiction novels, a few months from our departure from the Orient, a fellow ex-pat found temporary
work aboard a surviving boat and told me they had to stand guard for fear of pirate attacks; especially at ports in Indonesia. I could understand more easily
now, getting among the sea gypsies that lived a free communal life without any documentation or patriotism to hold them. We boarded a small wooden ferry
for the one hour trip to the virgin island (at that time 1992) of Koh Samui.
We secured a palm leaf- roofed bungalow made of coconut lumber, with a small kitchen, bedroom living room area, a small shower, not hot water, and a
seat less toilet, the kind you run into in Asia that consist of a porcelain plate about 3-4 inches thick flat on the floor resembling foot pads that one stands,
squats, and uses a small water hose to squirt a stream said to be more sanitary then toilet tissue, which by the way was a hard to come by commodity in
those days. What a bargain, eight U.S. Dollars a day for a house by the sea and it included TV satellite. “Mash” and other American sitcoms were still
running and we watched nightly at 7:00pm sharp Monday through Friday.
As stated, the shower water in our bungalow was not heated and even in this tropical environment it was freezing cold- most foreign visitors just bathed in
the clean, blue, salty sea that was much warmer or seemed that way when you up jump in head first. This is where I met Bert, a large dog of unknown
breeding that would swim out to me and dunk my head under for fun, which was irritating, but once people started calling Bert my dog, families, children,
locals complained constantly about Bert and kindly asked me to control my dog. My usual response was, “That is not my dog, see he speaks Thai and I can
not utter a word of it!” Nevertheless, I did not feed Bert who followed me wherever I went and stay at some other bungalow, I thought, in the evenings.
At that time, American and European ex-pats spent their time, swimming, drinking, and barbecuing Thai Style on coconut charcoal which I could never
successfully start and paid a young school girl that lived in the area to start mine- then one day she just said “no” just like that and I resorted to using
gasoline from my little Italian style-looking motor scooter which was also eight dollars a day rental. Another pastime was playing chess or at least we proved
that we knew the name and how to move each piece and of course beach combing. No matter what time of day or night if I wanted to walk the beach Bert
would come out of nowhere and he if saw somebody in the water as we walked along the shore he would go out and sink him as the swimmer would yell
back, “Your Dog, control your dog.” I would yell back. “It’s not my dog,” until the small population had a communal meeting about MY Dogs’ behavior. I
thought his behavior pretty fine as we explored virgin white sand beaches.
Anyways, not much to do on an Island in the South China Sea fishing for a job, any place but the U.S. Don’t get me wrong but I hit the job market in the
recession of 1975 after Vietnam, and could never make monthly ends meet no matter how prestigious or technical the job was which in my case was Jet
Mechanic. So, you go where the jobs and money are if it does not come to you which was Asia and Europe for me during the Clinton years, then a disability
put me on the rosters of Social Security U.S land locked and nothing left to do but go back to school, which I did and graduated with the “Fall Class of
Economic Crisis 2008” University of Texas.
Each, Morning, Bert and I would comb the beach and each day we would extend the trip a little longer and occasionally we would run into obstacles that
blocked a direct route by beach and the undertow was a powerful tug. One day, Bert led me to his owners who I first called Sea Gypsies in a kind way of
course. I tried to explain that their dog’ behavior is getting me in trouble with my neighbors and a young girl passing the other direction and not a part of the
Sea Gypsies group said, “Our dog? Why we see your friend Bert always with you?” “You, that bathes with dogs!”
The sea gypsies ignored the conversation gathered here and there around at least eight thirty foot hand carved [word of the timber that stretches from bow
to stern] and the plants pegged or dove cut without nails, fishing boats which they lived their whole lives with an occasional beach reunion for weather or a
repair of fishing nets or to trade the catch with the local fish mongers. The term gypsies came from a Thai trying to tell me in broken English that these
people live off the sea and have no place they call their home, and I said, “You mean like sea gypsies,” and he said “yes, yes, yes of course.”
I have known of many other cultures that live in boats, such as the east coast of China, and was told that the daughters never step foot on land outside of
marriage. And there are cultures that live on junks, such as the mooring of Hong Kong, mostly unusable except they do float as floating communities forever
moored in the same place which are these peoples’ homes because they can not afford an apartment or a home. I guess we could include the Peruvians of
Lake Titicaca who had been evicted from their homes in Northern Peru and the only space available was floating refuse such as plants, dead trees, logs
and mostly grass, called the floating islands of Peru. There developed a floating Island building technique that is wonderfully developed over time as more
people, became skilled in building these man-made Islands that were evicted from their land because they could not afford the rent.
The sea going vessels in China may be the homes of the fisherman but they are registered and have special visas, and government leniencies to fulfill a
function on the coast, be it fishing, towing, transporting goods, or rescue to name a few. And the poor moored in the Hong Kong harbors would really be
considered house boats because that is the boats only function. I guess we cold call the arctic Eskimos Sea Gypsies but today they do not live on their
boats, they live in sheltered communities with postal address and electricity; although there is a connection between the Eskimos and the Thai Sea Gypsies,
they consider the sea their garden and their God or a better word would be Divinity. Of course my preference would be universal self because the early Inuit
and Thai Sea Gypsies knew no distinction or separation between themselves and the world about them. The earliest evangelistic missionary to the arctic
were surprised to find out when translating words from the Inuit vocabulary, the name or term for ‘God” was non existent. They had a difficult time trying to
establish a God in a sense where he gets involved with everyday affairs, which include good and bad aspects of an absolute Deity much of which is tailored
by Christian beliefs.
With these beliefs along came the idea of Animism. The concept of religious ritual grew out of beliefs in nature as a result of human reasoning. The western
Ideologies of human development that support animism confuses ritual and religion with the development of the human intellect. We know little of the
religious patterns before the appearance of art; however animism is believed to be established before the pre-pottery stage of early humans. The point is,
those that live off the sea did not develop from primitive minds; they developed techniques and tools to a point of self sufficiency which to the Sea Gypsies
and the pre-missionary Eskimo is Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Balance, Excellence, Medical Care, protection from pirates, government control, and
family unity can be found in and on the sea; “there is a magic in it” as Melville would say but it is really a highly developed communal living that has insured
the Sea Gypsies’ survival from the first human feet that trod the earth.
Western behavioral sciences sometimes approach a culture or race of people such as head hunters of the Amazon and Huaquero’s, Peruvian grave
robbers action as taboo. Most discouraging, is archaeologist Max Uhle, who was the first person to scientifically excavate cemeteries containing Nasca
polychrome style of pottery. The first recorded artifacts of Rio Grande de Nasca were published as archaeological excavations by Max Uhle, although
discounted in 1999 as purchased goods from Huaqueros by Donald A Proulx of the University of Massachusetts. Huaquero’s or Peruvian grave robbers
have been practicing the ritual of locating and uncovering ancient graves that may hold gold and polly chromate pottery, some of the most expensive
pottery on the black market.
The Huaquero’s religious ritual as explained by a local to me on site in Nasca Peru April 2004. The Huaquero’s Grave Robbers religious ritual grew out of
beliefs in capitalism, not nature as a result of human reasoning. Partly and indirectly encouraged by collectors, the deed has become ritualized as a rite of
passage and honor to the dead. Most male citizens of Nasca participate in grave robbing some time in their lives!
Some cultural traditions such as grave robbing are taboo to most but for others their rituals are a rite of passage that involves the whole community in the
desert grave yards of Nasca Peru and a old tradition across Peru that is no longer practice but the evidence can be seen along the road side as open
graves and paintings with open graves that seem to represent the resurrection of the soul from the temporal body that is now dead and buried.
