Slum wall comes down

The flimsy block wall erected between my condo and the slum next it it is no more, after a group of slum teens knocked it down in the dead of night.

'It fell down by itself...the cement hadn’t yet dried,’ resident Tong insisted yesterday, as he told me the tale of the ill-fated wall.

I met Tong a few days ago amid a heightening drama between the slum community and owner of the land adjacent to the slum.

I knew what he meant. The wall needed a little help to come down, as it shouldn’t have gone up in the first place.

The slum wall stops slum residents getting out, and prevents residents from my condo gaining access to the slum. It also stops fire trucks getting access in the event of fires, which have broken out before, razing many homes.

A large piece of vacant land lies at right angles between the condo and the slum. Previously we could walk across the land to gain access to our closest shops, but they are sealing off that area off too.

The owners have hired a gang of workers from Esan to clear the land, the first step before housing goes up. One of their first jobs was to seal off with barbed wire access to the vacant land closest to my condo, but for a small gate.

The idea was to stop residents cutting across the vacant lot to the shops.

Then, two weeks ago they started sealing a wall they are building on the opposite side as well, which is home to an small open-air market, grocery shops and the local 7-11.

Once those gaps were sealed, gaining access to the shops was all but impossible, unless residents from my condo are willing to risk an excursion through the adjacent slum.

I am used to the slum, as Ball and his family live there. But for some residents, it is a different story.

I have found a few picking their way down narrow slum alleyways they would never once have dared visit, as they try to find another way across.

They gained their access from a narrow road which runs alongside the condo car-parking building.

When the workers on Monday put up a block wall at the end of that road sealing off the entrance to the slum, even that access route was closed off.

Fortunately, the wall was not up for long, as teens from the slum found their voice.

When I paid a visit to the site early yesterday, I found the nascent wall in ruins (see picture).

Tong, who has lived in the slum all his life and has kept a watchful eye on the wall goings-on, was sitting near the ruins when I came upon him and a middle-aged woman. She told us the story of what happened.

‘Last night, the spirit of a woman dressed in black visited the workers who put up that wall,’ she said, pointing to a row of builder’s huts on the vacant land, which the itinerant Esan gang erected to serve as their lodgings while working on the site.

‘She visited them in their sleep and forbade them from putting up the wall again.’

Tong, aged in his late 20s, looked as if he didn’t believe the woman.

‘Today the slum committee is meeting the land owner for talks about keeping the alleyway open,’ he said.

A few hours later, I heard a message broadcast over the slum loudspeakers. 'Residents are gathering a petition opposing the wall being erected again,' said the message, broadcast by the residents' slum committee.

I visited Ball’s place last night. While I was there, a resident from the committee dropped in with a petition, which she asked Ball’s mother to sign.

‘We’ve all signed it now,’ Mum said. ‘We want access to stay, as fire engines would need to use that route in the event of a slum fire,’ she said.

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Busy Ball spent the day in Bang Kapi, a good hour away on a bus, pursuing some hopeless work endeavour.

A Bangkok company hired him and his friend Y to set up booths selling flavoured milk in department stores.

The firm asked them to travel to Bang Kapi. After taking the bus, they had to hire a motorbike to take them to the place.

Ball quickly exhausted the B50 which his mother gave him for the day, and had to ask Y to help pay for their transport home.

‘We did not have enough money to eat, so had to go without food all day,’ he said.

Earlier, Ball applied to work for a company installing air conditioning machines. However, this was casual work only, and did not offer the prospect of a permanent job. He turned them down.

‘The flavoured milk people say they will look for work we can do closer to home, as Bang Kapi is too far,’ he said.

‘However, I do not expect they will call us back with anything. I could tell they were not really that interested,’ he said sadly.

‘I will top up the money your mother gives you to find work,’ I said.

‘I don’t want you going without meals. That’s ridiculous.’