
A few months ago, Thailand was a sinking ship. Some people even tried to create total chaos aboard the capsizing craft by murdering fellow travellers. Then the military took control and stopped us from going under.
The ship is now floating, but is very unstable because she still is leaking. Water still needs to be pumped out, planks need to be replaced and new construction made to make her more stable. The compass desperately needs recalibrating and most of the old maps should be thrown overboard and replaced with the latest up-to-date versions to ensure a safe voyage.
The old crew has been fired, some probably going to jail for their inept or corrupt seamanship. The ship is not seaworthy yet, but the refurbishing work is in full swing, in preparation for the new crew to arrive.
But now, strangers from another country have started arguing with the hard-working rescue team, demanding that the old crew be reinstalled because they were certified. This was the same crew that tolerated people with weapons arguing over how to helm the ship, turning it into an SOS situation. A little later, self-proclaimed navigators in New York popped up to voice their assumptions on how to navigate a shipshape craft, when what Thais saw was a rusting wreck manned by a seedy, shabby crew.
You do not argue with a captain and his rescue team when they are struggling desperately to keep their craft above the waterline. Most passengers on board understand that and are keeping calm, but some dangerous people are trying to rock the barely floating boat – a risky act that the rescue captain has cracked down upon. The foreign visitors and the wise-guys in New York are seemingly supporting this dangerous rocking with their talk and whom they choose to talk to. Rocking the boat could mean it takes longer to get her seaworthy – some are even predicting five years.
A Johnsen