Twists On The Path

*

Incredibly ancient, hostile in the wind but pleasant on the surface, confused and confounded by breaks in the armour, hostility again in the spirits in the walls, fond memories fading, the streets an assault, nothing simple, Suzy's manic pace keeping them hopping from one end of Pnom Penh to the other in the choked traffic and polluted air; past the Pnom Penh Hotel, down Russian Boulevarde, watching the sunset from the Foreign Correspondents Club or just screaming out: it's got to stop. So the walls were courageous, now, and the denizens evil in intent, and it was simply a mental trick to dismiss them all. Once again they went to the torture museum, S21, where of the thousands who passed through only seven survived and the sadness, the pain, the "time of bleak cruelty" as one of the notices described it, was quickly too much to bear, passing sad eyed tourists already shocked by what they had seen and read, and so we sat in the forecourt and the heat just hit them like an oven. Yet some of the Khmer are even wearing jackets; it's not hot for them. Ancient times call for ancient solutions, perhaps it is for the best. Evolve to survive.

There was business being done and large cars inching through the dark night, and the terrible chaos that had been visited upon them, it was not here now. Let's go out, let's go out, he insisted, because he couldn't bear the thought of those long empty nights and the long empty corridors above that shining marble, the chandeliers, the expansive beds. He had forgotten what it was like, padding around those huge Pnom Penh mansions; the gardens neat, the pool a comfort, the staff helpful in their discrete way. There was always coffee and plenty of food. Let's go out, he insisted to his daughter, you're almost 18 now. You can go to the discos. Maybe you can meet some nice rich Cambodian boy. I'm not interested in that sort of thing, dad, stop acting like you're 16. And then again the days seem to be taken up with sitting in a tuk tuk, hoping the breeze will ease away the heat and the terrible decadence that had marked their most delightful moments, part of the harm brigade, part of the clawing eyes, because he was just another in a tide of pariahs, and one more cup of coffee above the valleys below wasn't going to make any difference to these sweet, handsome boys, wild or mannered, all depending.

Calamity had been so long coming that when it finally overtook him he could barely recognise the difference from subsiding, daily life. Dank reaches. Nights that inch forward with the houses almost alive, so brooding, so threatening were they in presence. He could knock on any door and there would be no welcome. The mad ones nodded at him in the street. They recognised a kindred spirit. They appeared from everywhere. Just as the Falun Gong had emerged from everywhere, when he could finally see them. These were ancient streetscapes unveiled by discmissive waves from other, ancient hands, their troubled, unrealised voices whispering across the surface, because nothing here was content, nothing would provide relief, oblivion was the only passage out and it, too, provided only temporary relief, a brief absence from the hauntings. I've never had an original thought, they proudly declared. I've never had an original thought in this program. Inside or out, he thought. Good on you mate, he thought. I'm forced to sit here like everybody else. Discipline. Structure. Pain. Boredom. He rolled his eyes and couldn't help thinking: what the f...

They whisked into a fashionable, air conditioned Pnom Penh art gallery come cafe restaurant, where youngish travelers sat lounging around in the artificial cool, all of them, almost without exception, busy on their laptops. Oh how quickly computers had changed the world. Now this generation couldn't bear to be without them for five seconds. It was along way from the Coca Cola trail. Where did these kids get their money? Daddy, rich daddy, continuing the sacrifice. The voices were not so clear today; and he could finally breathe. The multiverse had collapsed and there were only two fate lines spinning in the dark; but was that even true? He could feel all the other fates, all the other alternatives, as if they were ghosts in the present day. An opportunity here. Alternative there. A car crash. An assault. His mother's car upside down in the ditch. Oh that's going to go down well, he thought, the poor long suffering thing. Always loyal no matter what craziness. Their stories multiplied. They didn't understand. Sometimes they didn't care. Every path was different, the alcoholics inspired, tragic loops were predictable to a degree. There was no point going home, he was too out of it to face the music, the disgrace.

If time offered a series of out options, then Pnom Penh offered a place where the time lines came together. The new Lexus dropped them at Maxine's on the other side of the river, opposite River Side, and they watched the sun set over the Tonlei Sap River, the pink beginning slowly from the burning sky, all the indulgences, all the secrets, readily on offer. The crowded boats passed beneath them, the chug of the engines muffled in the heat. Anything goes. Anything went. Behave as you will. You are your own person now. Nobody to please. No reason to hide. Nobody cares. Reach out, speak out. The pressure was on to return to Australia and he simply didn't want to go. I don't blame you, said David, the only one who understood why he didn't want to go back. To spend a fortune in a desert, where strangers stared and old men fumbled, where there weren't charming, entertaining, astonishingly good looking sex workers willing to keep you company for a perfectly reasonable price, where out of sorts with both himself and everybody else he would sit on the cliffs at Bondi until the world blurred into one sweep of colour and he watched the dolphins swimming up the coast, as if he could truly care for one more exotic sight. I don't blame you, David said, as he faced the tears of his daughter and the relentless questioning: when are you coming home?

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/08/c_13241498.htm

BANGKOK, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The co-leader of Thailand's anti- government "red-shirts" vowed late Wednesday night to carry out passive resistance to a possible dispersion under the emergency decree, which had been declared by the Prime Minister in the afternoon.

Sitting under the stage at Ratchaprasong Intersection of central Bangkok near midnight, Natthawut Saikua told reporter that the "red-shirts" protesters will neither leave here nor the Phan Fa Bridge, another major rally site in the capital city, before they see a House dissolution.

He also disclosed they plan for a march Friday in Bangkok, which, according to him, will "draw hundreds of thousands of people" from all over the country.

Asked what if the government try to disperse them under the emergency decree, the "red-shirts" leader said, "We won't retreat but we won't have conflict with the security forces, either; we just sit there and refuse to move."

Another leader Veera Musigapong, sitting beside Natthawut, seemed a little bit silent tonight as the only response he would like to give for the declaration of emergency state was "we don't care."

Veera's made his remark as thousands of "red-shirts" remained at the site, chanting and clapping, blocking the traffic here, even after the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had imposed the emergency decree in Bangkok and the nearby five provinces.

When asked whether choosing one of the prime business zone as the new rally site other than Phan Fa Bridge may bring inconvenience to Bangkok citizens, Natthawut said he believed " these trouble are nothing compared with what Thai people had been suffering during the past four years" since the ex-premier Thaksin shinawatra was ousted by a military coup.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/aussies-dont-want-population-of-36m-20100408-rsgl.html

Two-thirds of Australians don't want the country's population to reach 36 million by 2050, as forecast by Treasury, an opinion poll shows.

The poll, released on Thursday, found 69 per cent of people want the population to be 30 million or less in 40 years time.

"The poll shows Australians are comfortable with some increase in population size but are not in full support of the 36 million projected in the government's intergenerational report," Lowy Institute executive director Michael Wesley said in a statement.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he's in favour of a "Big Australia".

But last week he bowed to public concern about forecast population growth by appointing Tony Burke as the nation's first ever population minister.

The opposition this week flagged a cut to Australia's overall immigration intake.

But that suggestion was criticised by business groups, which argued restricting the number of migrants would lead to higher taxes.

The Lowy Institute's poll of 1000 Australians - conducted in early March - shows just four per cent of people want the current population of 22 million reduced.

Some 22 per cent of respondents believe the current figure is "the best target population" for 2050.

Forty-three per cent say the country should aim for 30 million.

Another 23 per cent suggest 40 million would be acceptable, while six per cent are happy to see the population reach 50 million over the next 40 years.

The opposition has welcomed the new poll showing two-thirds of Australians don't want the population to reach 36 million by 2050.

http://www.phoboslab.org/files/grid-solver/demo/images/38_Castle2_Color.jpg