Bureaucracy Insanity: Chair Envy

Here's an amusing item making the rounds. It is a letter that hails from Sri Prachan District, Suphanburi Province, a few hours northwest of Bangkok.

An unfortunate employee of the local revenue office there who suffers from back pain was told she cannot use her own chair at work, because it makes her look like the boss. Click on the image to enlarge and read the Thai for yourself, but I've provided an English translation below.

  Translation:

14 January 2010  

Re: Request for clarification regarding bringing a personal chair to a government office 

To: Sri Prachan Revenue Office

I, Mrs. Rasmi Thaisitthipong, a revenue expert for the Revenue Department, moved to the Sri Prachan Revenue Office on 21 November 2007, and brought a personal chair for use in the performance of my duties. The office chairs are uncomfortable to sit in, making be unable to perform my duties to the fullest, since I suffer from chronic back pain. Thus, I bring a personal chair, and have brought the chair with me to every office I have worked in. 

I have never had a supervisor inform me that I cannot bring a personal chair to work, until 3:34 p.m. today, when I received a phone call from the District Revenue Chief's office, informing me that Asst. Chamrat wants me to take my personal chair home, because it is not appropriate for my position. I was told to take a personal day tomorrow and to take the chair home. 

I acknowledge that I received the telephone call. However, I will not take the chair home, and request to continue to use it while performing my duties, until I receive a formal written order to take the chair home, in which case I will strictly obey the order.

I also request to review the Sri Prachan Revenue Office regulations to determine which regulation forbids bringing personal chairs for use in the performance of official duties.

Respectfully submitted,

Mrs. Rasmi Thaisitthipong  

Revenue Expert

The handwritten reply to her note, which apparently took four days to compose:

Khun Rasmi,

- That chair isn't appropriate for you, because it looks equivalent to the Sri Prachan District Revenue Chief. Tax payers or others who come to the office are confused as to who is the office chief.

- Use the office chair.

- As for your back pain, you should take care of your health by seeing a doctor.

Sirilak

18 January 2010

A doctor! Now why didn't poor Rasmi think of that? I think this is a hilariously perverse example of bureaucracy in action. And the fact that its making its way around the Thai websphere means that it's not just me who finds this kind of thinking a few tarang wa short of a rai. Never mind that a doctor's advice would be to use an ergonomic chair to minimize stress on your back.

If you're curious about who the characters are in this little tragicomedy of bureaucratic numbskullery, then look no further than the Revenue Department website: Suphanburi Revenue Department Administrators. The relevant players are in the left column.

Thai 101 Learner's Series Rides Again

It's been a while since Women Learning Thai finished re-serializing my Thai 101 Learner's Series, which first ran as a biweekly column in the Phuket Gazette during 2008.

The ever-patient Catherine of WLT managed to coax another installment from me, which went live last week. Have a look.

[Thai 101 Learner's Series: A Trusted Native Speaker is Essential]

Japanese Blogosphere Reacts to Doraemon's Death

Last week I wrote about a full Buddhist funeral held for a Doraemon doll in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Japanese bloggers, amused at the news of the beloved robotic cat's apparent death, are responding the way they know best: with lots of Doraemon ASCII art.

Check out some of the link love. Being able to read Japanese is helpful (but Google Translate also allows you to get the gist): Digimaga.net, Vistanamidame, Karapaia, tokyo.txt-nifty.com, Gakuburu, uiam.at.webry.info, Terrafor.

Nice to be noticed. If only we didn't have to lose poor Doraemon to make this possible.

If you just can't get enough of the Doraemon funeral, see also Channel 3's rather extensive coverage of the bizarre event on YouTube:

Alas, poor Doraemon! I knew him, Nobita.

Bizarre news from Thailand: this week a lady in Ayutthaya province held a funeral for her Doraemon doll.

The story has been widely reported in the Thai language press, and even picked up by the National News Bureau:

ความคืบหน้ากรณีนางพลับพลึง นามเจริญ จัดงานศพให้กับตุ๊กตา โดเรมอน ที่มีชื่อว่า จิเหว่ย นาคทอง ที่วัดมหาโลก จังหวัดพระนครศรีอยุธยานั้น ... นางนิภา รุ่งเรืองบูรณะกุล ครูประจำชั้นอนุบาล 1 เปิดเผยว่า นางพลับพลึง นามเจริญ นำตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อน ที่ชื่อจิเหว่ย มาฝากเรียนที่โรงเรียนวัดสว่างอารมณ์จริง โดยแต่ละวันจะมีรถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างมารับ – ส่ง เหมือนเด็กนักเรียนทั่วไปและเท่าที่ตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อน จิเหว่ย มาอยู่ที่ชั้นอนุบาลแห่งนี้ ทำให้เด็กนักเรียนมีความสุขและสนุกสนานกับการเล่นตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อนจนบางครั้ง ยังนึกว่าตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อนมีชีวิตเหมือนคนทั่วไป

Translation:

"Mrs. Phlapphlueng Namcharoen held a funeral service for a Doraemon doll, named Jiwoei Nakthong, at Wat Mahalok in Ayutthaya province. ... Mrs. Nipha Rungrueangburanakul, a grade 1 preschool teacher, revealed that Mrs. Phlapphlueng Namcharoen had actually enrolled the doll at Wat Sawang Arom School, and that each day a taxi motorcycle would drop off and pick up the doll like a regular student. She also stated that having Jiwoei in her class had made the students so happy, and they had so much fun playing with the Doraemon doll, that she began to consider the Doraemon doll to be alive like a regular person."

The fact that an "eccentric" lady enrolled her doll in preschool and the school principal and teachers actually played along is bizarre enough, but hardly national news. What has captivated collective attention of the country (for 15 minutes, at least) is the untimely demise of said doll.

That's right, the doll died.

According to various reports including this Matichon article, the doll visited her in a dream to say it had died, and asked that she hold a human-style funeral in its honor.

Now, in America at least we're no strangers to the concept of a graveside funeral for a family pet, but a full-blown funeral with casket and viewing would be odd for even a pet. In Thailand, a human-style funeral involves monks chanting for the welfare of one's eternal soul, followed by cremation. As mentioned above, the doll's funeral was held at Wat Maha Lok (วัดมหาโลก) in Ayutthaya.

Just as in the west, a Thai funeral is a paid affair, so the temple's incentive for accepting this rather odd request seems clear. As a result, the temple and the monks have been the target of criticism from the Thai public for compromising their religious integrity.

In this Pantip.com thread, users discuss whether it was wrong for the monks to agree to participate in a funeral for an inanimate object. Responses range from an adamant "yes" to a firm "no" to "I don't know, because for all I know this story is fabricated."

But most important of all -- more pictures!

[Pictures from here, here and here.]

Podcast: Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of 2009

I got together with Passakorn (Hong) and Wise Kwai again this week for another episode of Changkhui in English. Last time we talked about Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of the decade. This time we looked at the year 2009 in film. You can read Wise Kwai's original top 10 of 2009 post on his Thai Film Journal.

Other topics we touched on include the new film rating system enacted last year, censorship, the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project, and more. All in all the episode is 90 minutes. We did tend to ramble on a bit, but so be it.

You can get the episode from the Changkhui in English page, or download using the direct mp3 link. (See also Wise Kwai's writeup about this episode.)

Children's Day on Twitter

Children's Day (วันเด็ก) is celebrated on the second Saturday of January each year in Thailand. In observance of Children's Day 2010, lots of Thai twitter users have changed their avatars to childhood photos.

Prominent figures like newspaperman Suthichai Yoon (@suthichai) and hip hop artist Joey Boy (@joeybangkokboy) have even joined in the fun. I smell a new tradition.

Here's a sampling of Bangkok tweeple in bygone days. One of them is me. See if you can guess who. :P

Changkhui in English: Wisekwai's Top 10 Thai Films of the 2000s

The other week when I was a guest on Changkhui, I mentioned afterwards to Passakorn that he should invite Wise Kwai onto the English-language version of his program to talk about his top Thai film picks of the dearly departed decade. If you're interested in Thai film, you probably already know Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal.

Anyhow, we met up this past Sunday evening for 2010's first episode of Changkhui in English.

Thai music sampler: A Cappella 7

The other day for no particular reason, a thought popped into my head: whatever happened to the Thai singing group A Cappella 7 (อะ แค็บเปล่า เซเว่น)?

Now, a cappella music has never really caught on in Thailand. Western-style Thai music, known as "string" music, far too often gives us overproduced pop stars who can't really even carry a tune very well. Sound familiar? Happens back home too, of course. But I'm regularly and genuinely amazed at how terrible the singers are on Thai singing talent shows like Academy Fantasia or The Star. And yet many go on to become big stars. Welcome to commercial pop music.

Perhaps it was simply the novelty of it, but when their debut album came out, I immediately liked A Cappella 7. Despite the name, there are only five singers in the group (shades of Ben Folds Five, which was actually a trio). They've had three studio albums, but nothing since a song on a film soundtrack in 2006, that I can find evidence of.

Though only about half of their songs are actually sung a cappella, their best work is, or has only sparse instrumentation. Humor also plays a big part in their music -- singing about cooking omelets, expensive girlfriends, and even *gasp* farting. But I think overall it works. It's a welcome change from the done-to-death themes of 99% of pop music.

Here are my personal favorites from each album:

อะ-แค็บ-เป-ล่า-เซ-เว่น / A Cappella 7 (2002)

ตุ่ม "Tub"

Intention and action are very different things.

ไข่เจียว "Omelet"

Because sometimes you get hungry.

บิ๊ก แดดดี้ / Big Daddy (2003)

รอยตีนกา "Crow's Feet"

Reminding us that there are things worse than showing signs of aging.

ตด "Fart"

A deliciously sophomoric song about who did or didn't do it.

มากกว่านี้ "More"

Cheesy but catchy -- all about pining for a better world.

เม้าท์ ทู เม้าท์ / mouth2mouth (2005)

เรียนไม่เก่ง "Not Good in School"

Teaching us that love doesn't require book smarts.