They have parked a truck at one end of the carpark, to stop cars coming in. When I saw them, I wondered nervously if the militant anti-government group People's Alliance for Democracy had joined us.
I suspect not...it's probably just a concert. We don't get many of them around here, even though we have a school not five minutes' walk away.
It will be good to unwind, for those of us who are here to watch it. I shall be at work.
If PAD supporters did turn up in my market, how would I react? I don't want to think about it.
The political events of the last few weeks have left me stressed enough as it is...and I am not one of the unfortunate 300,000 or more whose travel plans were disrupted by PAD's occupation of the city's airports.
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My partner Maiyuu had a fit a few days ago. I heard a ruckus in his bathroom and went to investigate.
He was standing with his right hand gnarled in a strange shape. His skin colour was a deathly pale, and he looked dazed and remote.
He convulsed, his body knocking things off shelves.
I helped him out of the bathroom and put him on the floor. I searched in vain for a hard object which I could insert between his teeth, if in fact it was a fit he was having.
We live in a gay household, so almost by definition we are impractical. We do not put hard objects aside in the event one of us should have a fit.
After his body relaxed, I helped him to his bed, where he spent the next day and half sleeping off whatever had made him ill.
Maiyuu still feels dizzy when he gets up from his bed ...but then he spends most of his days on his back watching television anyway, so it's no big inconvenience.
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I self-censored a post on the PAD and the monarchy, called a Sickly Shade of Yellow. It is not the first time I have censored the political content of posts which appear on this blog...and I know other Thai-based bloggers who do the same.
In the original, I included several quotes from the Economist newspaper. After thinking about it a few minutes, I took the quotes down.
The last time an Economist article deemed offensive to the monarchy appeared, newsstand sales were banned and it was quickly removed from the streets.
This time, so far, I have heard nothing, which is encouraging. If it is banned, 'authorities' won't want vestiges of the thing remaining on blogs, webboards or anywhere else.
I learned things from that article in the Economist which we are not permitted to know here.
The media censors itself, so that content which could be deemed offensive under Thailand's strict lese majeste laws is removed before it ever gets to the public. Punitive defamation and contempt of court laws bring up the rear, stifling fledgling free speech.
As a westerner brought up in a culture of free speech, I am not used to having people decide for me what I should and should not know.
The western media doesn't tell people everything either, but nor is it often cowed into submission by laws designed to silence public debate.
More frequently, it will rail against them, or even flout them, to show its displeasure.
I do not like the idea of sharing a small cell with 60 other men for months on end without charge, for daring to speak my mind. Thai prison reform...is there such a thing?
hi, im kinda worried abt maiyuu. has he had similar episodes previously? its not normal to have such episodes anyway. u shld bring him to the hospital to have a check.
ReplyDeleteHe has not had any similar episodes previously. I asked him several times to see a doctor, but he is one of these men who avoids visiting the doctor if possible. He wants to die early, in other words.
ReplyDeletePossible withdrawal symptoms? Connect this maybe with the men following him, or his suspicion that they were following him? You really need to get him to a doctor.
ReplyDeleteWithdrawal symptoms? I do not have such an active imagination.
ReplyDeletemy advice is bring him to a doctor... to have him checked out. i myself is a doctor and i can tell u no normal person will have what u described abt maiyuu earlier. it would be sad if something preventable is not done early. u wont be able to bring him to one ureself?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joey. I cannot force him to go, though I shall pass on your concerns. I agree, it's not normal behaviour for someone who is fit and well. I suspect Maiyuu is afraid of what the doctor may find.
ReplyDeleteIf not withdrawal symptoms, maybe the paranoid behaviour you mentioned before is related to some other condition which could also induce the seizures. You've got to put more pressure on him to go- and if he has another seizure you need to call an ambulance.
ReplyDeleteThanks for at least leaving the links to the Economist and the other articles in place. I especially liked the International Herald Tribune's cut to the chase (a pox on all your houses whichever color shirt you wear --yellow, red, or brown).
ReplyDeleteAlthough you and I have somewhat differing opinions regarding the players in Thai politics, I respect your decision to self-censor, even though it makes my anti-monarchical republican blood boil.
And yet, in the Land of Smiles, You-Know-Who still "never smiles".
Ian Williams, an NBC News correspondent from the U.S.A., brought this into perspective for me in his blog when he quoted an unnamed reporter:
"One seasoned journalist summed it up nicely: 'Covering this crisis is like trying to explain the unexplainable, without mentioning the unmentionable.'"
clearly this episode was some sort of seizure. Could be a one time thing or could be something very serious. A friend of mine has seizure issues some of them have occurred at very dangerous times including while he has been driving. He has also blacked out during job interviews. He is on some drugs to control them and now that he has that straightened out he has been fine. Obviously if he refuses to see a doctor there isn't a whole lot you can do. But you might speak to a doctor yourself or do some research on seizures so you will be armed with information. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteMight be epilepsy...withdrawl is wrong diagnosis...can be fixed with drugs. My aunt and granpa had them. Go to a good hospital with him.
ReplyDeleteMy bf has epilepsy which he takes medication to prevent seizures. They are easily available in bangkok for cheap.
ReplyDeleteAlso if he has a seizure again, pls. don't put anything in his mouth. It is unlikely he will bite his tongue. Hope all goes well.
ryan
Thank you to readers for the advice regarding epilepsy, seizures, and fits, and for the expressions of concern about Maiyuu's health.
ReplyDeleteHe will not see a doctor unless he wants to go, and he doesn't, so that's all I can do for now.
I believe he is depressed, and has been in a sad state of mind for months. I ask him why he rarely sees his friends, and he says that by now, I should know better than to ask.
As his boyfriend, I act as witness to his deteriorating mental health. We both know he has changed, but he prefers that I say nothing about it.
I went through a similar depressive phase when I was his age, and feel sorry for him. Depressive disorders are not an easy thing to shake.