Tag Archives: people

Some people are larger than life.  James Harrison Wilson Thompson, more commonly know as Jim, or even ‘Lord Jim’, is one such person.  He is, amongst other things, credited with single-handedly revitalizing the commercial Thai silk trade.  An Office of Strategic Services (OSS; precursor to the CIA) operative during the second World War, he resettled in […]

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On the break between Christmas and New Year’s, I thought we had both: time and good reason. We had family visiting from both Canada and Australia, so a visit to the Allied war memorials at Kanchanaburi (more about that some other time) and beyond, seemed like a good idea. I had failed to take “time” […]

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The Chao Phraya River (แม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา), which collects the Nan and Ping Rivers in Central Thailand and runs 372 kilometres south to empty into the Gulf of Thailand, is the life-blood of the City of Angels. When Bangkok was established as the Capital of Thailand in 1782, most activity was conducted along the Chao Phraya River and the network of […]

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“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!” Camille Paglia I grew up in North America where the artefacts of culture are relatively modern. By contrast, Asian cultural objects speak of time… endless time… with it’s ebb and […]

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Isn’t the English language wonderful?  In the title “Weaving Communities” you probably read ‘weaving’ as an adjective – that is, communities that exist about or for weaving.  But, weaving is more usually a verb: the art of forming something, (a fabric or a fabric item; a basket, a story, a rug, a community…) into a pattern by interlacing long threads […]

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