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	---> MORE Thai Proverbs: _________________________________ Keeping your head down Standing the World on its Head Beware of Appearances Keeping Your Head Down When the Cat's Away You've Got to be Stupid Before You Get Wise Measuring Someone's Footprint Be compliant! Snake Snake Fish Fish Bid Tong Lang Phra - To do good by stealth The Menacing Tiger Little birds nest according to their size Keeping Your Head Down The Chameleon That Lost Its Head Out of Pride Wisdom come from Stupidity Follow the old, and the dogs won't bite you LOOKING AT THE TSUNAMI DISASTER Measuring Someone's Footprint One drop of honey Keeping Your Head Down Avoiding Victory Blame and Responsibility Beware of Appearances When the cat’s away, the mice play Water, water everywhere…

Standing the World on its Head

It was the Greek philosopher Anaximander who said that no man steps into the same river twice, meaning we live in a universe where change is the one constant. And that ought to be a familiar concept to the Thais, since Buddhism itself emphasises the impermanence of all phenomenal existence. Nevertheless, even in a society partly accustomed to the rapid modernisation of the last seventy years, a great deal of tension's been generated between traditionalists and radicals, the former putting their faith in the tried and trusted methods and wisdoms of the past, the latter urging the need for thorough-going renovation of Thai behaviour, starting with education, and going right through every aspect of the way society organises itself.

One of the most 'interesting' periods of recent Thai history is what's known as the Yuk Prachatipati - the democratic period that began in October 1973 with the sudden overthrow of one of the country's many military dictatorships, and ended equally abruptly with the bloody suppression of parliamentary democracy in October 1976.

For most foreign observers, the 'revolution' of '73 came out of nowhere, a sudden and apparently spontaneous uprising of students and adult citizens against corrupt power-holders, seemingly at odds with traditional Thai passivity in matters political. But in fact there'd been numerous pointers in the late sixties, early seventies that something unusual was going on, among them none more remarkable than a drama by Withayakorn Chiengkul called Mr. Apaimanee.

One of the 'constants' in traditional Thai society is the respect automatically accorded 'elders', and while you may not agree with what your big brother or sister, mother or father, teacher, preceptor or boss may say or do, you don't express your disagreement except in the most subtle and innocuous ways. But that's precisely what Apaimanee, a dreamy yet passionate young man recently back from his studies abroad, chooses to do - in the most outspoken and shockingly direct language contradicting his bureaucrat father, and refusing to follow the career path laid out for him. And in the course of the explosive little altercation between them, Apaimanee turns the normal world of his time on its head. His father quotes at him one of the most famous of all Thai proverbs: ru raksa dtua rod ben yod dee - "The highest good in life is taking care of yourself". And how does the firebrand respond? With a contemptuous laugh and the comment that that wasn't a pro-verb (su-pasit), but a con-verb (thu-pasit): an unthinkably insulting piece of word-play by the standards of the time.

W.B.Yates wondered if some verses of his had sent men out to die in the Irish uprising of the '20s. What's not in doubt in the Thai context is that words like these did have their effect in the radical upheaval and violence of the seventies - and still have their reverberations down to the present.