Before I tell you about today I have to tell you about yesterday.  I wrote the blog entry and posted it early in the day because I had no idea that there were going to be events of such significance during the rest of the day!  You can never tell.

After breakfast, we went to visit a member of the decision making stratum of society.  We wanted to continue our discussion of the day before and to demonstrate to her some of the capacity of advanced medicine. She is already a believer in the importance of natural medicine so we did not have to do much to convince her that clean food, detoxification, natural medicines, etc., are the foundation of a country’s health.

We showed her our technology, demonstrated its power and began talking about health at another level.  Then she invited us to go to a gallery exhibition for natural fabric dyes (with, as it turns out, natural health uses for temperature control) where we had the opportunity to see some utterly magnificent hand woven fabrics dyed in hand processed indigo (remember I mentioned that I love fabrics and weaving?  These were heavenly!)

At the gallery we met several people living in Thailand who will, as fate would have it, turn out to be especially important in the discussions that can help make Thailand another beacon in natural health and health freedom.  Who could have predicted that?

Many years ago, a beautiful woman named Bettina who shared my son’s passion for the flute (she was a grown up professional flute player, he was a budding one) said, when I asked her how she built her career as a musician, “It’s all about Vitamin C!”  I was pretty startled and more than a little unclear about what she meant.  When I looked with puzzlement at her, she explained: “Vitamin C — that’s for ‘Connections!’ “.

Well, in the lovely gallery, filled with spectacular weavings, sitting next to the Thai decision-maker, talking to a German expatriate and his American wife who “GOT” it and were quickly setting up the next steps, it clearly did have to Vitamin C!

You can bet there will be some intense follow up to those conversations!

Today we are packing to go to India (Mumbai, overnight in an airport hotel, then Delhi) for the opening of the Indian Farmers’ Festival.

My address to them is called “Farmers Hold Up More than Half the Sky” and will shortly be available on our website.  I’ll let you know when it’s up there!

Be well and be sure to get all the Vitamin C you need — both kinds!

When “We” equals “WHEE!”

We have been preparing for meetings in the most careful way: writing information material, translating it into Thai, strategizing whom to meet first, looking for the most meaningful way to make our point make sense in a different cultural, economic and historical context — you get the idea.

Two days ago we had a meeting with a man who writes grants for BIG NGOs.  We explained to him what we are about, how we are going about what we are about and what we need.  He said, half way through the meeting, “Let me know what I can do and I will do it for you for free!”  YES!  He then rang up our person here in Thailand and reiterated that he is in, totally in!  YES, YES!

Today we had 6 meetings and each one was a resounding success.

Meeting Number 1 actually started yesterday with a complete misunderstanding: we thought that the date was yesterday for the meeting and the high official who granted us the appointment thought that it was today. We got prepared for the meeting, dressed in our go-to-meeting clothes and got into a taxi cab which took us where we needed to go (we thought) and dropped us off. The soldier guarding the building said that we were in the right place and we got out, left behind by the receding cab. There we were, in a parking lot, looking for the entrance to a building with 7 floors. Nope. OK, we’ll find someone who speaks English and find our way. Nope. So there we were with only minutes to spare, a tremendously important appointment waiting for us and the only people to talk to a bunch of amiable non-English speaking guys hanging out in a parking lot. Not a relaxing moment.

The guys began gesturing to a van and ushering us towards it. No, we said. We do not need a ride (at least we did not think we did) and still they kept pointing us toward the van. Then one guy reached out and, we thought, was opening the door. But we were wrong: he was opening the window and inside was a regal and beautifully dressed woman who asked us in perfect English if she could be of help to us.

We explained our plight to her and she asked if we had a phone number. We did. She called and I got connected with the assistant to the man we had come to see who said that the Director expected us tomorrow and could not see us today.

What can you do? Nothing, just come back tomorrow. But seeing the look on my face of dismay, the lady asked what the problem was. We explained and also explained our mission. She responded with great interest and gave us her card: she was from another governmental department which has a great role to play in what we are trying to do but to which we had not yet developed lines.

She invited us to call her tomorrow (actually today, November 17) when we were finished with the first meeting (for which we got very, very good directions).

Next, back home in a taxi and more preparation meetings all day.

On November 17, 2006 we got ready and headed off to the official’s office (whom we did not see yesterday).

We got into a taxi whose driver had been instructed in Thai (and who had been given a map) because were trying to get to the high official’s office and NOT get lost. The hotel doorman instructed the driver in the cab about exactly where we needed to go and off we went. Twenty minutes? As they say in New York, “Fuhgeddaboutit!” Over an hour later we had gone miles and miles and miles out of our way in the worst of Bangkok traffic (which is more than pretty bad) and had actually driven past the building we were trying to get to: the driver had no idea in the world what he had been told we were looking for. And let me tell you, major highways (which we should never have gotten on to get where we were going) in Bangkok’s rush hour are a formidable obstacle!  A U turn, some more horrific traffic and there we were. Late.

When we got to our meeting location there were two translators outside of the [correct] building waiting for us and they greeted us warmly. Up we went in the elevators and met the Deputy Director of the department (who was wearing, by the way, a magnificent short sleeved business jacket made of stunningThai silk) along with other people who were sitting in on the meeting. When the Director of the department came in, we were able to give him our material on the International Decade of Nutrition (now in Thai and English), share our vision of what is happening to health and the world’s food supply and how we would like to help demonstrate what can be done to fix the problem.

After a bit of initial skepticism, he appeared to become fascinated and then very, very receptive. He made several suggestions about how to proceed and began using the pronoun “we” a lot. We agreed that we would stay in close touch, set up another meeting for either later this year or early 2007 and make two of our project areas a reality by creating two joint effort pilot projects here in Bangkok. What kind of joint efforts? Ones using our type of medicine — natural medicine.  Two of the people there were specialists in food safety and security so we agreed that we would have another meeting (and electronic correspondence with them specifically focused on Codex). Wonderful meeting!

Then we rang up the lovely lady of yesterday’s accidental “garage meeting” and were driven by a person who had been at the first meeting to have our meeting with her.  She is a head of section in another area of the government and, although she was very warm and gracious, she did not initially see the connection between what we were talking about at the last meeting and this one.  As we spoke, however, we made the point that natural medicine and natural agricultural techniques require new ways of doing jobs and people to disseminate information (a separate category of trained worker) and so her department had an important role to play in developing the skills and special activities of these people.  In short order she, too, was using the “We” word and the conversation turned to how she could help, suggesting connections for us, etc.

The remarkable thing is that I knew that we needed to work with her department here in Thailand to carry out our agenda BUT until our garage connection we had not yet developed any lines to that Department!  Talk about synchronicity!

At the end of meeting number 2, the lady put us in a taxi whose driver promised (in Thai) that he knew where the Conrad Hotel (the site of our next meeting) was.  Do you believe that?  I did at first.  It shortly became obvious that my faith in his geographical knowledge was sadly misplaced.  We were over an hour late for our luncheon meeting (number 3).  When we finally got there, the people we were to talk with were finished with their meal.  Non the less, we had an intense, brief, but highly productive meeting with an innovative, health-focused man who seemed to be very interested in how what we are doing fits in with his interests here in Asia.  Not long into that meeting the pronoun shift occurred.  His discourse went from “you” to “we”. So, although brief, the meeting was none the less productive, a preparation for more of same.

And the food in the Japanese restaurant in the Conrad Hotel is extraordinary!  If you get there, order the set lunch.  Mmmmmmm!  Delicious.

Next, we met with the woman who has been organizing all of this for us (meeting 4).  She has been a “We” person from the very first moments of our discussion.  Her understanding of how things work here and whom to approach are amazing.  Our first two meetings today came from our connections, but fit in very well with her approach.  Our next meetings were because of her contacts and were also filled with potential for success.  Thailand is, we believe, a pivotal country in our strategy because His Majesty, the King has committed himself, and therefore the people of Thailand, to health, organic farming and natural medicine.  Therefore, the momentum for these values and activities is tremendous here.

Our 5th meeting was held in the offices of a highly revered, and highly placed senior lady who understands clearly, very clearly, the vital importance of what we are trying to do.  Once we were introduced and began to talk, that wonderful word was very much in evidence: “We”.  “How do we begin?” “What is the best place we can start?” “How do we bring this to so and so?”

And, best of all, we have been asked to this lady’s home this morning for further talks.

Meeting number 6 was a dinner meeting with our Thai strategist and her partner, her father, a colleague and us.  We were “we” before we even sat down.

I would say we are having a “Whee” time!

Funny what quiet progress is like here: we have been incredibly busy with meetings that run from pretty early each day to late into the night but, since they are all strategy meetings with our consultants here in Thailand, and since the meetings are all in preparation for what is to come this next week, there is not much to say right now.

We have been very fortunate, indeed, with the people whom it has been our good fortune to find (or, more accurately, to be found by) here in the metropolis of Bangkok, a city of 12 million people.  These team members are a dynamic group of Thais and non-Thais who understand the relationship between clean food, herbs, supplements, health freedom and Codex.  And they also know how to bring ideas forward in this unique and important country where the revered and beloved royal family has created programs designed to improve both health and the economy of health with clean, high quality food projects and an emphasis on natural methods.

You may remember how meaningful the contributions of Thailand should have been to the implementation of the Global Strategy during the Codex meeting here but were blocked because of the interference of the other side.  And you may also recall that the Natural Solutions Foundation is spending some time here in Thailand to connect with the pro-health forces of this remarkable country in a variety of pro-health interfaces.

But those interfaces require meetings and the meetings require preparation (including, for example, translating our materials into Thai).  Next week we will actually meet the people we are preparing for this week.  In the meantime, however, I have to share some experiences with you which our Thai team insisted that we had to have.

Experience 1: Thai massage.  Very, very good despite moments of real pain.  Someone should write a book on this unique and powerful technique called “Thumbs of Steel” since the delicate, quite and gentle women who administer this special form of massage use techniques which are, on occasion, exquisitely painful.  Rolling and pressing, kneading and pushing their thumbs, forearms, elbows, knuckles, etc., with great precision over bone, muscle, sinew and things you had no idea you owned, the net effect is sort of like being a piece of play-doh for 2 hours.  At the end, though, you are re-shaped and much refreshed.  Living through it is, at the end, worth it!

Experience 2: Thai Foot Massage: Very, very, very good without the pain (well, nearly without it).  This 1 1/2 hour delight includes hands, arms, head, neck and shoulders as well as legs and feet. “Reflexology to the max with scented oils” would describe it pretty well.  To misquote an old song, “How Can I Keep From Purring?”

Experience 3: Having my hair done: Very, very bad.

Since I did not have time to get my hair done before we left on this trip, I thought that, in the few hours between two meetings, I would go to a salon run by a guy who takes care of expats, people who come from somewhere else but now live in Thailand.  That way, a Thai team member assured me, there would be no language problem and I would be sure to be happy.  Wrong!  The mantra of the hair appointment gone bad applies here: “It will grow out, it will grow out, it will grow out!”  Sigh.

Experience 4: Food.  Very, very, very good.

Obviously we have to eat.  And eat we have been doing.  From the spectacular Food Loft of Central Chitlom (a large department store a block or so from our hotel) where Thai, Italian, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Indian and a host of other wonderful stands sell whatever you can imagine made fresh from high quality ingredients in a food court from heaven to the spectacular restaurants of the major hotels (which are pretty spectacular all by themselves) to the (outstandingly terrific) quick food joint selling Greek food in a shopping mall, the food we have eaten is astounding.  Street food?  Not yet.  My courage failed me.

More to come: more meetings tomorrow (Sunday) and more meals.  Tomorrow we go to the famous Bangkok night market and I’ll let you know what it’s like.

Oh, and tomorrow we have a day full of those meetings getting ready for the week to come.

Tomorrow is election day in the US.  We are, as you know, in Thailand, which is a monarchy (with the longest-serving [and arguably the most beloved] monarch in the world).

I want to depart from my usual format and give you a comparison of a Thai news item and a US one so that you can ask, as you consider your vote tomorrow, and your political voice beyond that, where we are, where we want to be and how to get there. This is no small responsibility incumbant upon each of us, whether the issue is food or democracy or travel of taxation or whatever.
First, the Thai item:

(The date, November 7, 2006, is one day ahead of the US date because of the international date line.

Bangkok Post, Tuesday, November 7, 2006)

By: Chartrudee Theparat

The country’s first Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index will be available to guage the happiness of the Thai people in the next two months, the National Economic and Social Development Board’s (NESDB) secretary-general Ampon Kittiampon said yesterday.

Drawn up by the NESDB, the happiness index will be used to measure how much the 10th national development plan has accomplished in ushering Thailand towards a “green and happiness socieity”.

The 10th development plan for 2007 to 2011 is the blueprint for thrusting the country forward, with the emphasis on economic stability rather than rapid economic growth.

The new index is based on His Majesty the King’s suffieciency economy concept, a human-centric development strategy, and the 10th plan’s principles, said the think-tank chief.

The index would measure the people’s well-being at the social, community and family levels, Mr. Ampon siad.

Five elements that will be used to evaluate people’s happiness are physical and mental health, work security, good family relations, a safe and sound living environment, and protection of human rights and liberties.

The NESDB will conduct the GNH measurements and publicise the results one a year, he said.

Now the US item:

Now You Need Permission to
Exit or Enter the Country?

Today’s comment is by Mark Nestmann, our Wealth Preservation & Tax Consultant and President of The Nestmann Group.

Dear A-Letter Reader:

Forget no-fly lists. If Uncle Sam gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007, we’ll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave-or re-enter-the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSA) has proposed that all airlines, cruise lines-even fishing boats-be required to obtain clearance for each passenger they propose taking into or out of the United States.

It doesn’t matter if you have a U.S. passport-a “travel document” that now, absent a court order to the contrary, gives you a virtually unqualified right to enter or leave the United States, any time you want. When the DHS system comes into effect next January, if the agency says “no” to a clearance request, or doesn’t answer the request at all, you won’t be permitted to enter-or leave-the United States.

Consider what might happen if you’re a U.S. passport holder on assignment in a country like Saudi Arabia. Your visa is about to expire, so you board your flight back to the United States. But wait! You can’t get on, because you don’t have permission from the HSA. Saudi immigration officials are on hand to escort you to a squalid detention center, where you and others who are now effectively “stateless persons” are detained, potentially indefinitely, until their immigration status is sorted out.

Why might the HSA deny you permission to leave-or enter-the United States? No one knows, because the entire clearance procedure would be an administrative determination made secretly, with no right of appeal. Naturally, the decision would be made without a warrant, without probable cause and without even any particular degree of suspicion. Basically, if the HSA decides it doesn’t like you, you’re a prisoner-either outside, or inside, the United States, whether or not you hold a U.S. passport.

The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized there is a constitutional right to travel internationally. Indeed, it has declared that the right to travel is “a virtually unconditional personal right.” The United States has also signed treaties guaranteeing “freedom of travel.” So if these regulations do go into effect, you can expect a lengthy court battle, both nationally and internationally.

Think this can’t happen? Think again.it’s ALREADY happening. Earlier this year, HSA forbade airlines from transporting an 18-year-old native-born U.S.
citizen, back to the United States. The prohibition lasted nearly six months until it was finally lifted a few weeks ago.

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are two countries in recent history that didn’t allow their citizens to travel abroad without permission. If these regulations go into effect, you can add the United States to this list.

For more information on this proposed regulation, see http://hasbrouck.org/IDP/IDP-APIS-comments.pdf

MARK NESTMANN, Wealth Preservation &
Tax Consultant on behalf of
The Sovereign Society
assetpro@nestmann.com
www.nestmann.com

“The Two Laws that make civilization possible:
Do all you have agreed to do.
Do not encroach on other persons or their property.” — Richard Maybury (I think that’s the essence of Common Law & it’s the code by which I endeavor to live–rw)

Think about it.  Act on it.

Thailand is a place of grace and beauty (hot, it is true, even in the “winter” season), and she is an astonishing center of cultures, values you have to experience to understand: perhaps the best phrase I can use to say it briefly is joyful integrated spirituality.

Every hotel, for example, every building and every facility (Western, air conditioned, equal to any facility in New York or London) has, in front of it, a Spirit House designed to provide a place of residence for any spirit which might otherwise inhabit the larger building and, as spirits can, make people unhappy.  These exquisite little buildings are tended daily with flowers woven into wreaths and breathtaking offerings.  They are built like little temples and contain at least one deity each.  Sometimes the devotion is made apparent by more than one of these little buildings.  Elevated on pedestals, they are obvious centers of belief and devotion.

This beautiful tradition is a part of the vital commercial blocks of international real estate as well as residential communities.  There is deep and, as far as I have seen so far, utterly universal reverence for the leader of this country (which has never been defeated by anyone throughout its long and rather astonishing history).

Thailand is a country devoted to food.  Food on the street is a way of life: vendors provide food for breakfast when people are on their way to work.  When they are done, the breakfast vendors pack up and leave.  Next come the lunch and dinner vendors.  After that, there is a thriving open-air bar culture so that as people stroll the streets, they can have what they want at that moment, freshly prepared to their liking.

We have not yet gotten to the point of eating street food (despite the fact that we are continually assured that hot food is fresh and safe) but we look longingly at the delicious options and gratefully breathe in the fantastic smells they provide.  Uh, with the exception of the huge cockroaches, delicate silk worms and other insects which are also part of the endless sidewalk cafe, that is.

And everywhere we go, when we talk about food freedom, when we talk about natural health and the right to select it, we have met a warm, resonant welcome.  We are being urged to plant our knowledge and our vision in the ready and receptive intellectual soil here.

I could go on and on and on about the food.  Suffice it to say that variety and spice are the spice of life.  NEVER ask for your food hot here unless you really mean it.  If you do, I suggest that you commend your taste buds and your soul to your maker before you chow down.

More to follow.
Because these conversations are preliminary, you will understand, I am sure, why we are not discussing them in detail.  But they are profound and getting more profound as we go along.