Man about the house

A similar contraception for feeding the plants

My Thai partner Maiyuu has assembled a device to keep us going while we get the air conditioning machine repaired.

He cut off the tops of two plastic water bottles, and taped them over leaks on the bottom end of the air con machine, which is suspended from the ceiling in one room.

The bottles hang upside down, like the air con machine itself. From the screwtops, he has attached long plastic tubes, which resemble intravenous drip tubes used in hospitals but are actualy sold to supply air to fish tanks.

They carry the water which leaks from the machine into the bathroom.

The tubes drop to the ground beneath the machine, then lead into the bathroom on the left of the picture, where they end close a drain.

The water runs from the leaks in the machine, into the up-ended empty bottle tops, down the tubes, and into the drain.

Painless. How long did it take him to conceive it? A minute.

We called in the plumbers to check our air conditioning, as the coolant in the machine is running out.

The air con people replaced the coolant, but since they left, water has been dripping out the machine when it is turned on.

The bottom plate of the machine is rusty. While they were working, the plumbers opened two holes in the rusted plate, from which leaks sprung.

The first night after they left, water dripped noisily from the machine when it was turned on.

When I put a large plastic tub under the air con, it filled with water in less than two hours. It wasn't a trickle, but a small flood.

Now that Maiyuu has erected his water bottle contraption, it is silent.

We have to pay B3000 for a new metal plate.

The plumbers have ordered the plate from a supplier, and will install it when it has arrived. However, making it, they said, would take days.

The plumbers charged another B1000 for replacing the coolant. They came while I was at work.

After finding the leaks, the plumbers returned two days later to measure the machine for the plate. They also picked up their B3000.

When I gave Maiyuu the money, he brightened.

'I will go out and buy a container to catch the water drops,' he said excitedly. He found the plastic tubing in a fish tank shop.

Money stimulates his creative imagination.

I don't spend much these days. My job is to provide. As the man about the house, Maiyuu gets the ideas, then asks for money to make them work.

However, I do get to share in the benefits.

I enjoy watching the leaking water make its way slowly from the machine, down the tubes and into the bathroom. It moves along like a long train on a track, seen from high in the air. It is entrancing.

I have never laid in a hospital bed with a drip attached to my arm, but I imagine it looks like this.

Saline solution, or blood, flows from a plastic bag along narrow plastic tubes, into the patient's body.

In our case, water trails from a leaky, rusty air con machine, along a long fish-tank tube into a drainage hole.

It sounds less important, but keeps us going just the same.

Castration turf wars (part 2, final)

Yollada with her transmale boyfriend Ronnakrit

Former kathoey beauty queen Yollada, who was at pains to emphasise that gays and kathoey (boys who want to be girls) are not alike, claimed she had never come across under-age boys who had been castrated.

However, she said the sooner young kathoey get the hormone treatment they need - resulting from sex change, or castration - the better.

Gays were infringing on kathoey rights when they called for age curbs on castration and sex change surgery. Kathoey had the right to seek treatment for their mental illness, no matter what their age.

She wants the Medical Council to talk to kathoey activists such as herself before deciding on any new curbs on sex change and castration.

Kathoey activists, of course, have campaigned for years against the Thai military branding them as 'mentally ill' when they are excused on health grounds from compulsory military service. This labelling on their draft document affects their job prospects for life.

It seems they are in fact happy to be regarded as mentally ill - but only when it suits.

Yollada said the Medical Council should tell the public about the pluses and minuses of castration. If castration could do harm to the body as it develops, the taxpayer might have to step in to help. Some countries were prepared to publicly fund treatment for mental illness.

Rainbow Sky Association president Kittinan Toramathat said fellow activist Natee did not speak for all gays, and had not consulted his group before seeing the Medical Council.

Contacted by Khao Sod newspaper, Natee says his group, Gay Politics, does include kathoey, and met other gay activists before deciding on their stance. Not everyone was present, and some may object, but he is not worried, as it all adds to the public debate.

The Medical Council sub-committee working on new curbs for sex change and castration surgery meets for the first time on April 5, and will include someone from his group.

Postscript: So, do kathoey get the services they deserve? In Australia, the government has issued travel warnings to its citizens contemplating undergoing cheap cosmetic and plastic surgery in Thailand.

In a report on the perils of Thailand's 'scalpel tourism', the Sydney Morning Herald says Australians who travel to offshore spots such as Thailand for cheap surgery have reported horrendous side-effects, such as infections, hair loss, scarring, paralysis and failed implants.

They require thousands of dollars of taxpayer-funded corrective surgery. Read the story here.

Castration turf wars (part 1)

Gay activist Natee

Kathoey activists are protesting against Medical Council plans to impose tough new curbs on sex change operations and castration surgery.

They have also told gays to keep out of their business, after a delegation of gay activists called on the Medical Council to demand it stop clinics performing castration services as a cheaper alternative to gender re-assignment surgery.

Gay activist Natee Teerarojjanapong, who led a delegation of 10 activists to present their demands to the Medical Council, believes that as many as eight out of 10 kathoey may have had the procedure done.

He says the procedure can potentially destroy lives, as it is irreversible, and can lead to premature senility and even mental retardation. He came forward after worried parents in Chiang Mai contacted him.

In response, the Medical Services Support Department said hospitals and clinics had been warned not to perform castration unless a medical condition requires it.

Staff from that department this week raided the Pratunam Polyclinic, which offers castration services to Thais and foreigners alike. The raid turned up nothing irregular.

Owner Thep Vejvisit said his clinic had never provided such services to boys under 15 years.

The legal age for someone wanting surgery without his parents' consent is 18. Thep admits his clinic had performed the procedure on youngsters as young as 15, but only in special cases, and always with parental consent.

He said that in the last four years, the clinic had performed castration services for 500 people.

Kathoey activists including former beauty queen Yollada Krerkkong Suanyot, president of the Transgender Thailand Group, and the Rainbow Sky Association, say the furore over clinics offering castration services to under-age patients has hurt the public standing of kathoey.

Media reports portrayed them as sick and strange, they said.

They oppose the Medical Council's attempts to raise the age limit for people wanting a sex change. They agree that castration should be offered only to patients at the legal age. However, they defend castration as a legitimate treatment option.

The Medical Council, which has set up a sub-committee to work on new regulations, is likely to raise the age barrier for someone wanting gender re-assignment surgery to at least 20 years old.

It also wants patients assessed by at least one psychiatrist, and to try out being a woman, such as wearing women's clothes, for six months to a year.

The kathoey activists cited approvingly research by the World Health Organisation, which found kathoey were 'mentally ill', and required hormone therapy.

Castration, which must be followed by life-long hormone treatment, was another form of hormone therapy which WHO says kathoey need, they said. Kathoey and trans-gendered activists met the media yesterday.

now, see part 2

Beggars, and chosers

I met a group of school-aged children by the canal close to my home.

They were jumping off a pier into the water.

'Are you waiting for a boat?' one asked.

'No,' I said.

'Are you waiting for a farang?' another asked.

'No..I am just looking at the water.'

'Are you Thai?'

This boy called me 'Uncle', and gave me a sweet smile.

'No, a foreigner.'

'Can we have money to get home?'

The charm of the moment vanished.

'No,' I said, turning away.

He asked again, in the annoying way that kids do, when they don't get their way the first time.

'If you don't have money to get home, you shouldn't have come out,' I said, as I left the pier.

They looked at me as I walked away.

Later, in the market, a man on crutches saw me standing under a bridge, and hobbled towards me. He made good speed on that pair of sticks - perhaps the fastest he had moved that day.

He held out his hand for money.

'Go away!' I said sternly, and walked off.

I was waiting for a bus. Two Thais waiting for the same bus looked at me.

They might have wondered how farang deal with beggars who put out their hand whenever they see a white face. Now they know.

The market where I live has two full-time beggars. One has a gammy leg, and the other is mentally slow. The guy with the walking sticks is new.

He needs to find his own begging space smartly, or the others might get annoyed.

The one with the funny leg carries a tin begging-can on his travels. While he tends to stick close to the market, I have seen him in another village, 10 minutes' walk away. Have begging tin, will travel.

He must earn enough from begging, or he would not do it. He seats himself in strategic locations, such as where small roads cross at right angles with the footpath. Pedestrians must cross the road first then hop back onto the footpath if they want carry on. He sits himself right on the edge of the footpath, so you have to meet him when you cross.

The southern part of the market gets busy at night, as food stalls open for after-work trade.

The beggars know this, so move down to this part of the market when it gets dark.

During the day, they sit at the opposite end of the market, close to a busy bus-stop which serves students.

They sit on the sidewalk, along with the floral garland sellers, taking up valuable space. Once again, pedestrians have no choice but to pass them if they want to get anywhere.

The one with the tin can gives me a deep wai when he sees me. He presses his closed hands against the top of his forehead. If he shows me plenty of respect, he hopes I will be extra generous.

When I pass by without giving him a thing, he laughs loudly, as if I have just insulted his pride, or he is embarrassed for having bothered.

'Ha ha ha ha!

The one who is mentally slow knows better than to expect anything now. I stopped giving when I realised that every time I saw him, he was smoking a cigarette. If he wants cigarette money, he will have to go somewhere else.

At night, he gets a free meal from the same shop where I order food every night...only I have to pay.

The market does have one other beggar, a hobo type with long straggly hair. I rarely see him. He sleeps by a dirty canal, which is close to a savings bank, but does not get much foot traffic.

He will have to lift his act. I seldom walk down there, and nor does anyone else. If he's not careful, he might have a genuine reason for going begging.

Caught napping (part 2, final)

Amnat Kusalanant, the council's secretary-general, says a sub-committee drawing up the regulations will meet for the first time next month. The rules for gender re-assignment surgery are likely to change to bring them more in line with those overseas.

Someone who wants gender re-assignment surgery should be at least 20 year old, he said. The patient should also be assessed by at least one psychiatrist; he should have to pass a test period where he tries out being a woman, such as by wearing women's clothes, for six months to a year.

Some countries overseas, he says, require men to try out the idea for up to two years before surgery can go ahead.

If surgeons persist in flouting the rules, they will have their medical licence suspended. The regulations will come into effect this year.

Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap says the revelation that surgeons are offering the castration service to under-age teens has made him reconsider his view on whether doctors should be protected from the risk of criminal court action.

Previously, when the Medical Council argued that patients should be able to sue doctors for malpractice in the civil courts only, he was sympathetic. Now he believes there are some cases in which criminal action might also be justified.

He urges parents with under-age children who have undergone the procedure to sue in the civil and criminal courts, on a charge that the doctor caused harm to their child's body.

The 2004 Miss Tiffany's winner, Poy Treechada, the idol of many kathoey nationwide, says she was worried to hear that under-age kathoey were undergoing the castration procedure without their parents' consent, or proper medical supervision.

She herself waited until she was 18, and had finished school. She cautioned teens against aping fashions, and said they should think twice before having such a drastic procedure done.

Postscript: Do kathoey have activists to represent them? Why so quiet? To put it another way, why does the duty to alert the public and demand action from the Medical Council have to fall to gay activists rather than kathoey themselves?

The public, it seems, cannot rely on the Medical Council or government health inspection agencies to protect them. Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap admits that if the gay activists had not gone public with their concerns, the scandal may have gone unnoticed.