I had to answer mum’s phone almost every evening while I was still studying in Satree Samutprakarn School. It’s not because she was about to pick me up or asked me to go meet her somewhere in order to come home together like others.. it was always a phone telling me to hide or be away from those who were fighting in Paknam market. There are at least 3 or 4 technical schools and vocational training schools here in Samutprakarn. They can be able to touch and create some tools themselves and that’s the main cause of them making something dangerous like gun pen which is the least harmful or using their equiments to fight with others instead..
I can still remember that day so well. I feel like it just happened yesterday.. yelling, clinging, hitting and finally..road full of blood.
That day, my mum was busy with her meeting at school so she didn’t know if there was anything dangerous happening around the market where I had to catch buses so I just left school with my friends. While I was telling my friends a joke, we were happily laughing al-together then BaNGG!! – - “There!! THERE!!! Drag them down!” “Don’t act coward! GO FIGHT THEM!!” “USE THE BELTS!!” “I’ve got a GUN!!!” and etc. were the words intervening through the air to us and other people who were shopping some dinner at the market. Some of us ran away to hide..some were shocked and stood still but noone said a word or screamed at all coz we knew if we did, we’d be in trouble. I, myself, was eager to see so I stood there ..watching. I didn’t want to accept that it was real.. I thought it was some kind of movies.. I never knew people could be that wild and cruel.
The guys from technical school saw those from vocational one sitting and standing on the bus (with no air-condition) so they ran after the bus and caught it at last.. As soon as they reached those other guys, they all started to hit and punch one another..couldn’t really seperate which was from which school..after a few seconds, one guy was dead so his friends was mad..they used knives and at last..guns. At last, the police came..they took care of it ~ they fought a little but the police finally could arrest most of them. Everything was silent now.. I could feel nothing even my heart beating or the wind blowing my hair. It was like that scene was already over..now movies makers had to clean all the blood but nothing happened. Blood was still there..the bus was still there and even the body was there, lying still, too.
Not so long ago after that, we still heard about a guy who wasn’t even a student, just some adult sleeping on the bus. He was sitting on a seat at the back of the bus and his head was leaning back against the window. He must have had his mouth opened while he was sleeping..that’s how the picture on newspapers was. Technical school’s guy saw him yawning and felt disgusted so he fired a gun and the bullet went from the gun via his mouth and the window behind. And the latest fighting in my province..one grandmother was shot and died immediately.
I would love to know what’s so wrong with our world today.. why do people stop caring about others? We, technically, are this planet earth’s friends. There’s nothing we can really do to solve it for forever but there’s no excuses for any of us to just sit or stay still.. doing nothing. It’s time for us to start showing our power to protest it.. Some may not feel it so affects your life that much..but wait till some day, somebody you love or ones who share your surnames have to suffer from it.. there might be tomorrow for us and who we love.
I have asked myself, too.. We hear about conflict and constant fighting in so many ways but it’s different when we see it happen in front of our own eyes. We can imagine the pain and we ask ourselves ‘why?’ without ever understanding. We still continue to do it over and over again, always fighting, never doing as much as we can to prevent it. Sad..
ps – cute pic
I did not know Paknam was so dangerous
I also heard such stories about guys from vocational and technical schools. However, my own experiences show that not all are that bad.
I taught in Isaan at a school that mixes regular students with technical students, so I taught both, albeit different classes. The technical students are a very friendly bunch, it was lots of fun teaching them. They certainly didn’t give the impression of blood-thirsty fighting machines that the media shows.
There was a tech student who lived in the same house as I did (in the principal’s house), a very nice guy. Although I’ve left Isaan a long time ago, I’m pretty sure that if I were to go back, I’d be greeted with the same warm friendship that we had when I left.
Just wanted to present the other side of the coin there.