The Elephant Story

Welcome to Coupville, Thailand

Mar 29, 2021 | 0 comments

Many people are focused on the miserable coup in Myanmar though the U.S. had a brief brush with its own clear acts of insurrection on January 6, 2021. Nonetheless, Thailand has had 13 coups since 1932. The Thai Enquirer recently published an article entitled Grading Thailand Various Coups. Out of the 13 successful coups, they graded them with one A-, one D- and the remainder with varying levels of F. It is worth noting that there were many more unsuccessful attempted coups over those almost ninety years. The first bloodless coup occurred in 1932 representing a turning point in the...

Dysfunctional Defines the Democratic Republic of Congo

Mar 22, 2021 | 0 comments

Most people do not give much thought to The Democratic Republic of Congo which is a prudent thing to do—investors lose most everything which can include their lives, diplomats can be killed and conservationists suffer physical injuries without adequate medical attention. With a last-minute presidential pardon, our former President did not give it much thought and lifted sanctions on one of the most corrupt foreign businessmen in the DRC, if not anywhere. However, the businessman had retained the same lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who represented the former president in his first impeachment trial. Maybe the flash cash and legal connection made...

Can Anyone Send a Few Billion to Angola?

Mar 15, 2021 | 0 comments

Most of us are somewhat familiar with the adage that only Allah can make a perfect carpet. Therefore, all Islamic carpet makers leave some small flaw in their carpet patterns. Well, in our pursuit of continued success in the international oil exploration and development business we left our flaws in Sub-Saharan Africa with a big chunk of change devoted to Cabinda, Angola. It becomes a spreading cancer when you grab an opportunity in Republic of Congo, pick up one in Cabinda, the neighboring enclave of Angola, and then cap it off with a position in Democratic Republic of Congo. That...

An Afternoon with Sheikh Yamani

Mar 08, 2021 | 0 comments

On February 23, 2021 Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi oil minister for almost 35 years and the mastermind behind Opec which set the stage for the management of worldwide oil prices, died at the age of 90. The Times Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani Obituary is perhaps the most complete summary of this remarkable man's life. On March 25, 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was murdered by his nephew while Yamani, standing next to him, caught him in his arms. Nine months later he looked down the barrel of a gun when he was one of eleven ministers of Opec...

SAFETY PROTOCOLS REMAIN

Mar 05, 2021 | 0 comments

SAFETY PROTOCOLS REMAIN Dear Customers, In light of the recent announcement from the Texas Governor, removing the mask mandate and allowing the operation of 100% capacity, we feel that it is necessary to make our loyal customers aware that The Elephant Story will still require all staff to wear masks and maintain the previously implemented sanitation practices. The Elephant Story will continue to request that customers wear masks when entering the store and adhere to the current social distancing guidelines. During the past year, The Elephant Story has kept all these practices intact, out of respect and wellbeing of our employees, clients and community. ...

The "Colonel Bogey March" Was a Bit Bogus

Mar 01, 2021 | 0 comments

I did not view the movie The Bridge Over the River Kwai when it premiered in 1957 and won an Oscar for Best Picture. However, years later I did see it after having travelled the Kwai River in Thailand a number of times in the late sixties and early seventies. In those days, it was a very dangerous place given the numerous ethnic armies that moved back and forth across the river from Burma into Thailand as part of a significant drug trade specializing in opium, legitimatized in part to fund the illegal U.S. war in Laos. I went up...

A Lunar New Year in Lockdown

Feb 22, 2021 | 0 comments

For the previous fifteen years or so, we would spend Christmas in Texas and then head to the Far East. A year ago, the winter events included the Winter Sumo Tournament in Tokyo, travels throughout Vietnam and considerable time in Bangkok with lots of exposure to the Chinese side of New Year food delicacies. As you would expect this year, Christmas was spent in Texas and we remained home past February 12, 2021 which was the beginning of the Lunar New Year festivities representing the year of the Ox. On February 7, I saw a few minutes of The Super...

A Coup but Fortunately Not in D.C.

Feb 15, 2021 | 0 comments

On December 11, 2020, we commented on the recent election in Myanmar in which the military junta that controlled the government lost its majority to Aung San Suu Kyi's party in Claims of Voter Fraud-The New International Blame Game. On February 1, the western world was shocked that the military thugs would not step down and therefore declared a coup and arrested Myanmar President Aung San Suu Kyi, the last vestige of freedom in a sea of military uniforms. Clearly, the western pundits had been very critical of the lady in her lack of an attack on the military in...

A Glimpse of Life in A Dark Tunnel

Feb 08, 2021 | 0 comments

Approximately one million Rohingya people were driven out of Myanmar by the dim-witted, corrupt military regime and misguided Buddhist monks demonstrating a clear pattern of crimes against humanity. Another way to express the reality is that these people were fleeing their homes in order to save their lives. They settled in a miserable refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh. If that name is familiar to you, it is because it appears in navigation flight paths as a well-known marker. Approximately one-half of those refuges are children which puts them in a precarious position with a host of risks. ...

Calm and Serenity with an Undercurrent

Jan 25, 2021 | 0 comments

After the political chaos of the United States in the past several weeks, calm and serenity is very appealing. Generally, my vision of calm is a Buddhist temple or a Shinto shrine particularly in the ancient city of Kyoto, Japan. Sadly, pandemic lockdowns are likely precluding much of the visits but one thing you can always count on in Kyoto is Ms. Naomi Hasegawa’s Ichiwa toasted mochi shop near an old Shinto shrine. The New York Times recently published an article entitled This Japanese Shop is 1,020 Years Old. It Knows a Bit About Surviving Crises. This image is taken...

A Wee Bit of Weed History

Jan 18, 2021 | 0 comments

In the recent contentious U.S. Presidential election, voters of five states voted to legalize marijuana which brought the total number of states to 35 that have chosen to permit the consumption of medical marijuana. Moreover, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation to decriminalize marijuana though it is unlikely to get past the stodgy Senate. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said he was too concentrated on Covid-19 relief measures to focus on such a bill. On the other hand, maybe a couple of tokes would make him a more enjoyable and caring person. Clearly, inappropriate lengthy prison...

Blue Helmets Under Dark Skies

Jan 11, 2021 | 0 comments

Some years back we took a huge corporate misstep into Sub-Saharan Africa. We lost massive amounts of money but no lives which makes us ahead of the normal game there. We were not content with only one exposure but were in three connected and troubled countries, Republic of Congo, Cabinda, Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo. The most problematic and dangerous of the three was the former Belgian colony of Zaire or what is today known as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I first went there immediately following a showdown between two brutal warlords with government promises of “blue skies”...

The Leading Ladies of Bangladesh

Jan 04, 2021 | 0 comments

I first went to Bangladesh in the early Nineties to sign an award of an oil and gas concession that subsequently became a significant natural gas field. It was being assigned to a very small company that we controlled though the work commitment was far beyond our financial capability. Therefore, we brought in an industry partner before the concession was signed. The CEO of our partner and I went there for the first time to sign the agreement with the government. As we were both athletic, we headed out for an early morning jog following our arrival and eventually realized...

Winter in Tokyo

Dec 28, 2020 | 0 comments

One of the strangest things about the western Christmas and New Year holidays in the tropics of Southeast Asia is the absence of cold weather and any ability to even dream of snow. However, my first winter holiday season in Japan was a miracle as I walked out of my house in Yokohama and staring me in the face was the amazing sight of Mount Fuji. It was most puzzling that it had been there all along. However, it only became visible when the factories closed for the winter holidays and the continuous air pollution was severely curtailed. Therefore, this...

DO YOU HAVE THIS BLANKET IN A JUMBO SIZE?

Dec 24, 2020 | 0 comments

Two years ago, Joey led a campaign to knit blankets for young baby elephants in the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. The Elephant Story ladies, The Tinsmith's Wife knitting group in Comfort, Texas and the staff of The Siam Hotel in Bangkok went to work knitting for the elephants in The Golden Triangle and in Ban Ta Klang, Thailand. After two warm years, this Christmas Eve, it was cold to enough for the elephants to give them a try. Click on the reference below for a short video and commentary by our dear friend, John Roberts, Director of the...

A Great Loss in the World of Knowledge and Espionage

Dec 21, 2020 | 0 comments

Many of you would have learned that John le Carré, the former British intelligence officer and author, passed from pneumonia at the age of 89. He was famous for his spy novels that grew out of his 16 years in Her Majesty's Service. A few of us have spent much of our lives in foreign settings laced with international espionage intrigue and some have had even deeper encounters. Therefore, we have had a small window into the framework that shaped much of the world of Mr. le Carré to underwrite the clarity with which he saw through that murky setting....

Claims of Voter Fraud - The New International Blame Game?

Dec 14, 2020 | 0 comments

If a political party and an incumbent president of the leading democracy in the world cannot accept fair elections, what can we expect from former British colonies that are just trying to emerge as democracies? Before we lecture others about the cleanliness of their houses, we need to have a look around our own. The noise coming out of an election in Myanmar some four days after that of the U.S. strikes a familiar tone though some of the sounds there are gunfire. I began a long engagement with Burma, or what became known as Myanmar, over fifty years ago....

Thailand Smiles on the LGBT Community

Dec 07, 2020 | 0 comments

For at least the past sixty years, Thailand has had an open mind and a laissez-faire attitude regarding the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender community which set it apart from the majority of the world during that time and most definitely its Muslim neighbors. Many a young soldier on R&R from Vietnam would wake up the next morning to a surprise though probably some number of them never knew. In most all walks of life, there was a clear acceptance of sexual preferences with no discussion necessary. From May 12-15, 1975, I was in a jungle camp on the Thai/Cambodian border with Khun Toy,...

Amazing India: The Origin of Meals on Wheels

Nov 30, 2020 | 0 comments

It is widely accepted that India is one of the central cradles of civilization. As there has been an explosion worldwide of delivered meals during the pandemic, it would seem appropriate to recognize its origin in India a mere 130 years ago. As I have been involved in India some thirty years, I first became aware of dabbawalas by seeing images such as that below. The dabbawalas form a lunchbox delivery system from homes and restaurants to offices and shops in Mumbai by delivering to their clients. The lunch boxes are picked up in the late morning in railway stations...

Fleeting Moments in Life

Nov 23, 2020 | 0 comments

Every day we can open the paper or turn on the television and catch up with the daily death count from the pandemic. In the highly controversial Vietnam War era, the same situation was true though the numbers were less than one-fifth of the Americans lost to Covid-19 with no end in sight at this moment. Therefore, maybe we have become immune to the consequences of undefined deaths that do not seem to matter to some people. However, rest assured they matter to those connected to the fallen party. Recently, a very close friend passed far ahead of his time...