The scam of slavery

 

It seems a new form of trafficking and slavery has developed in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are virtually imprisoned in "scam centers" in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Tricked by promises of good office jobs, they are forced to work with various Internet and phone scams. The centers are often controlled by Chinese crime gangs.

However, it seems that both China and Thailand have decided to move against the gangs after a high profile abduction of a Chinese actor (!) in Thailand (he was trafficked to Myanmar) and Thai fears that Chinese tourists might avoid their country unless something is done stat. The Chinese government is of course entirely hypocritical, due to the slave-like conditions in China´s seafood industry, not to mention Tibet and Xinjiang. I suppose the crime syndicates messed with the wrong officials.

The Myanmar military is apparently also sick and tired of the scam centers at their side of the porous Thailand-Myanmar border, since they have decided to aid the Thai efforts to clean up the place. So I suppose you could say that this story has a "happy ending" of sorts...for now. Something tells me the scamming will continue elsewhere. 

Speaking of which...

The YouTube clip above tells a somewhat bizarre story connected to the scam center issue, this time from Cambodia. An attention-seeking influencer from Taiwan staged an incident in Cambodia, claiming to have been kidnapped and tortured by a gang operating a center. The Cambodian authorities weren´t amused and sentenced both him and an accomplice to a long prison sentence. Even the Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Manet condemned the hoax. One thing the YouTube clip doesn´t tell us is whether or not the Cambodian police also took action against the scam centers...

Slavery never really went away, did it?  

Tens of thousands could be held in illegal scam compounds

Thousands rescued from illegal scam compounds

LARP-ing Communism

 

Bizarre East German/Soviet LARP from Laos. Pseudomorphosis at its "best"! 

The Inner School of the Elders

"Esoteric Theravada: The Story of the Forgotten Meditation Tradition of Southeast Asia" is a book by Kate Crosby published last year. I haven´t read literally all of it (it *is* very "esoteric"), but will post a review anyway (it´s my blog, after all). Despite being a scholarly work, it´s published by Shambhala, an independent pro-Buddhist publisher based in Boulder, Colorado. 

Judging by several other works I´ve read, the almost exclusive emphasis on Vipassana meditation (which modern Mindfulness is based on) is a new phenomenon within Theravada, not older than the 19th century, when various modernization processes conspired to "resurrect" (or perhaps create wholly de novo) this kind of meditation technique. Before the 19th century, few, if any, Buddhists meditated at all, Theravada practice being about "merit-creating" and pseudo-magical rituals. While this scenario isn´t "wrong", Kate Crosby shows that the actual picture is more complex - and even more interesting. 

It turns out that alongside the official Theravada, there *was* a tradition of advanced meditation, which Crosby calls "boran kammatthana". This was an esoteric practice of unknown date which played a prominent part in certain monastic circles prior to the 19th and 20th centuries, usually communicated by word of mouth from master to disciple. It even played a role in a major Buddhist revival in Ceylon during the 18th century. There are similarities between boran kammatthana, Tibetan dream yoga, other Tantric practices, alchemy and Ayurvedic medicine. For some reason, Crosby doesn´t discuss possible similarities with esoteric Taoism. The usual suspicion is that the esoteric tradition within Theravada really is Tantrism, and since such influences were anathema to the 19th century modernizers, this simply became another argument to ignore or suppress it. Crosby, by contrast, believes that boran kammatthana is really inspired by Ayurveda, and that it´s so closely aligned to Theravada philosophy that an "alien" Tantric intrusion is unlikely. In other words, the secret tradition is in some sense legit. (Personally, I don´t see the contradiction.) 

The most interesting section of the book tries to describe the actual practices associated with this old school form of meditation. The practitioner does experience various paranormal or supernatural phenomena: encounters with the spirits of the deceased, visions of other realms of reality, seeing spheres of light sometimes accompanied by luminous letters in ancient Khmer script, etc. Physical objects may be visible even when the meditator closes his eyes, or may appear in strange and unfamiliar shapes. Abstract themes for meditation may "appear" as quasi-physical objects, such as a sun´s disk or radiant gems. The practitioner is supposed to absorb the luminous orbs through his nostrils and place them inside his body, at the locations of various chakras or energy centers. This will eventually transform the physical body of the meditator into that of a Buddha! The relationship between this (apparently literal) transformation and the ultimate goal of nibbana (nirvana) is not spelled out in the esoteric scriptures, but presumably a person who dies while in this transmogrified state will immidiately attain liberation. (Does this mean that the Buddha-body is mortal? Or does the person choose to die? Not clear!) 

Some additional techniques described in the book take numerology and peculiar written code words as their point of departure. There are affinities between boran kammatthana and alchemy (yes, it works with quicksilver and sulphur in Southeast Asia, too), magical tattoos, traditional medicine, and "forest monks" living at the outskirts of Theravadin civilization. At the same time, the esotericism was also surprisingly intellectually sophisticated. A close reading of Theravada Buddhist philosophy suggested that the "atoms" of samsaric existence are simultaneously both material and spiritual. (Compare Whitehead´s process philosophy!) But if so, spiritual mutations should lead to changes in the physical. Therefore, it´s entirely in keeping with Buddhist understanding that a spiritual technique such as meditation can transform a physical body. Presumably, it´s also logical to assume that a certain kind of body can make it easier to attain a "spiritual" state such as nibbana.  

When Theravada modernized itself during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the esoteric practices were gradually squeezed out. One way of doing so was to ban traditional medicine in favor of the modern, Western version. The sangha (monastic order) was taken over by modernists and controlled by the modernizing state. This was the course taken in Siam (Thailand). The esoteric tradition there had already been weakened during the 18th century when the Burmese invaded and devasted Siam, including the then capital of Ayutthaya. In Cambodia, the French colonial power supported the modernist faction within the sangha. The Cold War was another crushing blow. In Cambodia and Laos, Communist regimes (most notoriously the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia) decimated the sangha and Buddhism in general. In pro-Western Thailand, millions of people were relocated from the border regions, where the Thai government feared Communist infiltration. Traditional forms of Buddhism had survived longer in these areas than in others. However, it seems boran kammatthana isn´t completely dead. A few monasteries in Thailand still teach the practice, and the controversial Dhammakaya new religious movement has adopted a modified version of it. Somewhat ironically, it seems that the latest phase of modernization, with its emphasis on individual choices in religion, might favor the ancient esotericism...

There seems to be more to explore here. This is the *inner* school of the elders. 

When the weird becomes the new normal

“The Weird of Hali” is a fantasy story, or rather weird tale, in seven books by John Michael Greer. The concept is simple, yet fascinating: what if the monsters from H P Lovecraft´s horror stories (such as Great Cthulhu or the Crawling Chaos) turn out to be the *good* guys? To say that the novels are a wild ride would be to underestimate the case considerably! The last book in the series in particular, “Arkham”, does everything it can to out-weird the weird pulp fiction it´s freely based on. Not a moment goes by without the hero being chased by “negation teams” to the far corners of time, space and (perhaps) New England, encountering creatures you didn´t think existed even in the Old Solar System of Vintage Scy Fy. It´s fun – if you´re in on the joke. And yes, John Michael Greer actually lives in Providence, Rhode Island!

From a purely literary viewpoint, “The Weird of Hali” is very uneven. “Dreamlands” is the best book in the series. “Innsmouth”, “Chorazin” and “Arkham” are somewhere in the middle. “Kingsport”, “Providence” and “Red Hook” are more boring. Especially “Kingsport”. Still, you probably have to devour all seven volumes of this unpredictable saga if you really want to “get it”. One reason for the unevenness is that the author deliberately wants to create a contrast between the everyday life of the characters and their wild adventures in realms monstrous and squamous. Thus, we have to read detailed and frankly boring exchanges over dinner tables between the main protagonistas, with the author describing, again in some detail, what they were eating. Indeed, the food in the Hali in-universe seems to be delicious even in the midst of a great depression and near-apocalyptic ecological crisis! Is Greer secretly a gourmand? The characters have surprisingly normal family and love lives, although some of them are co-habiting with human-monster hybrids! Every time some character does library research (and that´s often), the action is stalled in favor of long laundry lists of usually imaginary books and documents turned up in the dusty corners of some university archive. (I did this kind of research myself when I was younger – of course, I wasn´t attacked by a squamous snake-man afterwards. Also, I usually did it on an empty stomach.)

And now for the positives...

Lovecraft was notorious for his conservative and racist values, something turned on its head in the Hali universe. Many characters on the good side are Black, female, mixed race or immigrant. The human-monster half-breeds of Lovecraft´s stories turn out to be very sympathetic, even somewhat sexy. The cannibalistic Tcho-Tchos are actually a pro-American hill tribe from Laos with perfectly normal feeding habits (their culinary interests are described in some detail). The race of the humans working for the evil Radiance is never explicitly described (I think), suggesting that they are White. Another notable feature is that many of the humans working on the good side are typical outsiders. The story features an asexual witch, a flamboyant homosexual suspended in the Dreamlands, a teenager with Asperger´s syndrome, a man who looks like a sasquatch due to a genetic disorder, and so on. Some of them are nicer versions of characters from Lovecraft´s stories. In the original Lovecraft universe, deviancy was a sure sign of degeneracy, and presumably of sheer evil as well. In Greer´s version, the story is borderline “identity politics”, which is funny, since I happen to know that the author is somewhat skeptical of such things IRL.

The main point of “The Weird of Hali” is, as already mentioned, that the Great Old Ones from Lovecraft´s fiction aren´t really evil. They are simply pagan gods. The dark cults worshipping the Eldritch are not the abominations described by the Providence horror writer, but simply latter day pagans doing what pagans have always done: soothsaying, cartomancy, ritual magic, meditation, idol worship, and so on. The sacrifices offered to Great Cthulhu turn out to be pretty innocuous, such as sea shells! The real evil comes from the Radiance, a “scientific” brotherhood with roots in ancient Babylonia. Exoterically, the Radiance believes in science, enlightenment, rationalism and the need for humans to conquer nature. Esoterically, however, the organization knows that the Great Old Ones exist and seeks to tap their magical powers to further its real goal: the enslavement of all humanity under one robotic hive-mind. In “Arkham”, we learn that the rabbit hole goes even deeper. Just like NICE in C S Lewis´ “That Hideous Strength”, the Babylonian Siblinghood turns out to be controlled by demonic entities and thus very far removed from the “rationalism” it espouses through its public front groups. The Radiance has been taken over by the Mi-Go, a race of fungous crabs from a planet beyond Pluto who is evil in both Lovecraft´s original stories and in Greer´s alternative versions. The goal of the Mi-Go is to harvest human brains for unknown but presumably ulterior purposes…

However, it´s also obvious at several points in the story that the Great Old Ones aren´t “good” in the simplistic “Christian” or secular senses of that term. Nor are they “gods” in any ontological sense. Rather, the Old Ones are powerful cosmic beings as far removed from humans on the evolutionary ladder as humans are from, say, rodents or amphibians. The Old Ones consider Earth their home, and are usually utterly indifferent to the strivings of humanity. Indeed, some of them can´t stand us and might even be dangerous if disturbed. However, many Old Ones can be contacted by humans through appropriate means and then bestow boons on individuals or entire communities. In this sense, and this sense only, are they “gods”. Nor are the Old Ones perfect. One of the plot twists of “The Weird of Hali” is that Great Cthulhu has a conflict with The King in Yellow, a conflict with terrible consequences for the Earth and for the human race. Only by healing this 65 million year old quarrel can balance be restored. It´s also interesting to note that once the Old Ones take possession of Earth, nothing much happens to the planet itself, except that large portions revert to wilderness. The pagan gods aren´t interested in helping humanity create a utopia or a millennium, indeed, humans have to live with the consequences of their environmental destruction in the form of leaking nuclear power plants, flooded and abandoned cities, a sharply reduced population, and so on. (This theme is a constant in both Greer´s “occult” fiction and “secular” non-fiction. About 10 years ago, the author was very active on the peak oil scene.)

Still, if you take this author literally, there seems to be enough to do for 10 lifetimes even in this far corner of the indifferent universe. Earth is really “lesser Earth” and part of a wider world known as “greater Earth”. If you know how to access all its dimensions, you might find yourself in places as far-fetched as they are wonderful. I´m not sure if Greer really believes this, or if it´s just a literary device (or an allegory for the astral world – the author is a Druid Revivalist and Golden Dawn occultist). One really weird thing about these novels is that I found the fantastic and frankly crazy parts *easier* to believe in than the supposedly more realistic parts. As already mentioned, the characters have no trouble filling their stomachs or holding their little family reunions in the midst of a world-wide climate crisis, when widespread famine, rampant crime and the return of the bubonic plague would be more logical. *This* sounds more supernatural than all the fantasy action! Lovecraft being reincarnated as a particularly nice tomcat? A meeting with a resurrected Merlin in the Pine Barrens complete with a flight on the back of a Jersey Devil? A journey two billion years into the future, when the last intelligent species on Earth turn out to be enormous spiders living in underground caverns? Anubis driving a Batmobile around the New England countryside? Been there, seen that, done that…

I mean this quite un-ironically. I didn´t expect the weird tale aspect to be the *least* weird in this magnum opus!

Apparently, John Michael Greer has also published a spin-off to “The Weird of Hali” in two volumes (with a third waiting in the wings, or is it caverns). The spin-off follows a female would-be composer as she is contacted by musical shoggoths! Since Greer is a Freemason, may I venture a guess that said shoggothi love Mozart? Stay tuned (pun intended) for further weird tales with a hidden message…

Saigon has fallen

This is a somewhat peculiar field guide, first published in 1975 and regularly reprinted since. “My” copy is from 1995. Since it’s a reprint of the original edition, Ho Chi Minh City is still called Saigon, while Myanmar is still Burma. The guide covers Myanmar, the Malaya peninsula, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Presumably, the book was rushed to the printer shortly after the fall of South Vietnam! Curiously, it also covers Hong Kong (not a part of South-East Asia) and contains checklists of birds found on the islands of Hainan and Taiwan (not part of South-East Asia either). A total of 1198 species are presented.

The book is obviously written by “nerds”, and like true nerds, they have spent considerable time sorting out the English vernacular names for the various birds, and occasionally invented new ones. The four page long explanation as to how this was done is at least good for comic relief: “All compound group names composed only of nouns were hyphenated or joined into a single word…Wherever a group name is used for more than one species, each species in the group is indicated by a different adjective”, et cetera. You grok? The addresses to societies of bird-lovers are also funny. One of them is the Oriental Bird Club…in Bedfordshire! Still, that may be easier to find than Hoi Dieu Hoc Viet-Nam in “Saigon”…

The field guide itself is downright annoying and has all the traits users of field guides love to hate. Texts and illustrations are not on facing pages, the color plates are not found in one single section but interspersed throughout the book in a bewildering fashion, and many plates are in black-and-white! Nor are the birds shown in the same order as in the text, although on this point there is a logical explanation: the authors wanted to group similar-looking species together for easier identification.

I admit that I don't like the layout of this volume, and I will therefore only give it two stars. And I still don't understand why Hainan and Hong Kong are included in a guide to SE Asian Aves…

Interesting, but hardly a wonderland

“Laos Wonderland” is a problematic documentary about Laos, Vietnam's smaller neighbor in Indochina. Laos is painted as some kind of Eden inhabited by peaceful and happy native tribes surrounded by primordial forests. Apparently, nobody wants plumbing or electricity, rifles are prohibited and the entire land is filled with Buddhist temples. Only at the very end are we told about the civil wars, the Vietnam War and the “Communist experiments”. That the documentary *does* mention that many of the local species of wildlife are threatened, simply ads to the confusion.

But yes, “Laos Wonderland” is interesting, as it follows a team of scientists (headed by an American!) to document the wildlife of a remote region. They weren't disappointed, as “camera traps” caught photos of the clouded leopard, the Asian golden cat and tigers. We also learn that new species of mammals have been discovered in Laos, usually by scientists inspecting the local meat markets where the unfortunate animals end up dead, somewhere in between the fruit and the vegetables!

If you are interested in nature documentaries or rare wildlife, “Laos Wonderland” might be interesting, but please disregard the romantic stuff…

Whatever you do, don´t mention the aliens

Juan Posadas was a Latin American left-wing activist, originally from Argentina. He claimed to be a Trotskyist, and founded an international organization in 1962, sometimes known as the Posadist Fourth International. Originally, the Posadists were one of many Trotskyist or left-wing currents competing for the minds of radical students, and perhaps even some workers (Posadas was a labour union organizer at one point).

Then something happened. What is anybody's guess, but the Posadistas rapidly developed into *the* most bizarre leftist current ever spawned. They became a kind of lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe. And let's face it, the competition is pretty stiff: David North, Lyn Marcus, Bob Avakian, Hardial Bains, etc. The ultimate article on J. Posadas can be found on the website of Fortean Times (you heard me). Pick up your smart phones, comrades, and search for "Fortean Times. Profiles. Juan R. Posadas". You won't be disappointed.

However, you just might if you read "Cambodia, Vietnam and the problems of the construction of socialism". It gives a wholly new meaning to the expression "rambling speech". Frankly, large parts of it are incomprehensible.

For your benefit, I nevertheless read the entire pamphlet. Posadas wants Trotskyists to support the Soviet Union, a hard sell if there ever was one. His argument is that Stalinism died with Stalin, and that the Soviets are once again at the centre of world revolutionary developments. One should also strongly support Soviet allies Cuba and Vietnam. Posadas never mentions the salient fact, that the Vietnamese Communists murdered prominent Trotskyist Ta Thu Thau, nor does he mention that his own supporters in Cuba were suppressed by Fidel Castro!

I also got the impression that comrade Posadas doesn't believe in the revolutionary capacity of the proletariat, instead extolling the virtues of technocrats and scientists in true Saint-Simonian fashion. But yes, I might be out on a limb here.

The ostensible point of J. Posadas' ramblings is the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1979, which toppled Pol Pot's murderous regime. Posadas defends the invasion, hotly denies that Pol Pot's regime was a "Workers State", and condemns both the Khmer Rouge and the Chinese leadership in Peking (which supported Pol Pot) as counter-revolutionary cliques. He also expresses belief in the claim that one million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge during their reign of terror, while being sceptical to the Vietnamese claims of three million. Well, at least Mr. Posadas have a point here. "Brother Number One" in Cambodia definitely had it coming.

The pamphlet ends with a call for a united front of all Workers States, Communist and Socialist parties, and all Revolutionary States, including (wait for it) Libya and Madagascar.

Madagascar?

OK.

The pamphlet also contain one illustration, a photo of smiling women comrades of the National United Front for Salvation in Kampuchea (FUNSK).

I don't think "Cambodia, Vietnam and the problems of the construction of socialism", dutifully published by European Marxist Review, is particularly interesting. But then, it never mentions the UFOs, the surprisingly long life span of elephants, or the need to nuke America hard.

Stay tuned for further developments.