The idea of going to Thailand was “completely random” (courtesy a friend of mine). Yet it fitted so well with what I’ve been doing, post BSc graduation, that I decided to give it a try. The PGIO had advertised for interested students (and those whose work involved “sustainable development”) to apply for a bursary to Thailand. There, selected students would participate in the 4th Student World Forum themed “Sustainable Rural Development” under the auspices of the Academic Consortium for the 21st Century (AC21). When I got selected as part of 3-man team (oh, two men, and a woman!) to attend the forum, I was at once both happy and anxious – happy to be going to Asia for the first time and anxious about the prospect such an adventure held. Beyond these two states of mind, my passion for “sustainable rural development” held sway and I couldn’t wait for the day we would finally ‘land’ in Thailand!
As expected, I needed to work on visa acquisition and other documentary requirements to enable me undertake my new adventure. Additionally, and as if to test my resolve to go to Thailand, I was within the same period required by the South African Home affairs to renew my permit from my home country – where the Royal Thai Embassy has no offices. This threw a whole new set of challenges to surmount because the Thai Embassy in Pretoria required my physical passport before they could attempt to process any sort of visa to the renowned Kingdom. With the assistance of the PGIO and at the nick of time when I had returned from my home country, I got my visa to Thailand!
After several hours of flight, we got to Thailand, at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, to a warm reception by a group of Thai young ladies who had apparently been trained by a combination of culture and education to go the extra mile in making a great first impression on visitors to their warm country. Coming from Cape Town to Bangkok, we could not help but immediately noticed the change in weather. But I was no stranger to a hot and humid climate, as someone from tropical Africa south of the Sahara. There was something equally hot for my first day in Bangkok – the extra spicy Thai foods which we took during the evening. From my own judgement, Thailand takes spicy foods to the next level, beyond those of West Africa to which I’m much accustomed. After such a warm and spicy welcome, we retired later in the evening to our modest, spacious and descent rooms at the Chulanlongkorn University, the host institution of the 4th AC21 Student World Forum.
My curiosity surged when we had to start a 220 km journey from Bangkok to the Huay Sai Royal Development Center located in the vicinity of the historic Mrigadayavan Palace, Sampraya sub-district in the Phetchaburi Province. The name alone invoked inquisition. There, the beautiful beaches and nice accommodation offered a perfect serene for intellectual regurgitation of the events from our daily trips to sites of ongoing development projects in this Province. For three days, we saw the damaging, almost “irreparable” impact of unsustainable agricultural practices on the land resources of the rural people. We saw efforts in water resource utilization and forestry development projects. But even more interesting was the triumph of technology over what had virtually become “concrete soils” (what the locals call “din dang”), reclaiming the soils back for agricultural purposes. By the use of vetiver grass, the centre is on course to restore several hectares of land devastated by uncontrolled and unssutainable farming methods.
Land reclamation as we later learned was only one part of a four-pronged development approach including forestry development, water resources development and quality of life improvement, all steeped in the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy propounded by the King of Thailand – His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej. That philosophy gave me lots to think about as we ended our time in Huay Sai.
We made the journey back to Bangkok after three days at the Huay Sai Royal Development centre and to the Chulanlongkorn University to share perspectives on our collective experiences and deepen budding friendships. But we had returned to Bangkok not only into the University to share perspectives, we had also returned to mainland Thailand and into is palaces and market squares where art and craft adorned beautiful buildings of ancient architecture, each holding a story of its own.
In the end, these images of Thailand, physical and philosophical, did not necessarily offer simple solutions to sustainable development. They offered more. They presented to me a new third world development paradigm that will stay with me for several years and certainly shape how I perceive “development” in many more years to come.