More corruption in Thailand

If you have read my previous blogs it will be of no surprise to hear that I had an amazing time at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. It is a relaxed, caring and joyous sanctuary for previously abused elephants to live out their final days without the fear of being starved or beaten.

Thailand is famous for being a beautiful and picturesque country but underneath all the appealing cosmetics lies a deeply corrupt government that carries out severe actions when anyone speaks out against them.

The elephant has always been a trademark for Thailand, they are symbolized as an object of worship. Their main beer is named “Chang” which is Thai for elephant, their houses and shops are lined with ornaments in the shape of elephants and many wear clothes and jewellery with the sacred animal on. However their hypocrisy goes on to amaze the western tourists, as your visit to the ENP will teach you, they far from treat them as the gentle and peaceful animals they indeed are.

They are seen as domesticated animals, not wild (despite their rapid decline) so it is perfectly acceptable for Thai people to beat them into submission from babies, to stab them in the eyes if they don’t do what they are told and to wander the busy streets of Thailand preforming tricks in exchange for food.

The ENP was set up by Sangduen Chialert, or “Lek” to people that know her, she has always been disgusted by the Thai peoples treatment of elephants and consistently, throughout her life, campaigned against this. However this has caused her many problems with the Thai government who have, many times, intercepted her acts of goodness.

Unfortunately corruption struck again on the 8th of Feb as the the ENP was raided,

“On Wednesday 8 February approximately 100 government people descended on The Elephant Nature Park. They claimed they had an anonymous phone call alleging that the park was hiding some 70 wild elephants. They disrupted the park from early morning till evening, some 13 hours. They found nothing but fully documented elephants living in sanctuary. Some were old, some sick, some wounded but all were properly documented and well cared for. It’s public knowledge that there are 35 elephants at ENP. ENP’s attorney was on hand and presented the proper documentation”

This was taken from a blog shown on the ENP Facebook page http://www.asianelephantstories.blogspot.com/2012/02/wfft-enp-both-raided-but-why.html

Definitely worth a read!!!

However what is even more interesting is the theory behind why the ENP was so randomly attacked. It appears that some time in December last year 2 wild elephants from the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi were found slaughtered for their bones, ivory and meat. Their carcasses were then burnt. According to http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/276010/weekly-highlights The Kaeng Krachan Parks chief was involved in it all.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with Lek and her lovely park, but hold on as all will be unravelled soon!

It turns out that when news got out about the slaughter of the elephants the only 2 organizations that stood up and actually did something about finding out who the real culprits were was ENP and Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand (WFFT). They managed to find strong evidence that The National Park Service were actually involved (Despite that fact that they themselves had declared they would punish the real culprit.)

Lek had amazingly managed to get hold of a video clip which would show who was behind the elephant trading, however (not surprisingly) the government didn’t want to know. Now this is where the power of the press got involved, after interviewing Lek and the founder of WFFT 5 park rangers from the national park were arrested on involvement.

Since then both ENP and WFFT have been raided. Unfortunately the raid at WFFT was far more severe, with heavily armed government officials showing up, visiting school children intimidated and the president of WFFT, Khun Jansaeng Sangnanork being arrested. Apparently it was also made clear at the raid that this was the consequence for speaking out.

Fortunately Lek was not at the Park when the raid at ENP took place, if she was there are fears that she too would have been arrested. Gladly though she is now back and according to the blog http://www.asianelephantstories.blogspot.com/2012/02/wfft-enp-both-raided-but-why.html

she is equipped with even more evidence of elephant trading in Thailand.

The fight continues and I know who’s side I'm on, so if you would like to show your support to these amazing organizations here are some sites for you to check out.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/urgent-plea-for-rescued-thai-wildlife/

Elephant Nature Park and ENP Facebook

Wildlife Friends of Thailand and WFFT Facebook

Auschwitz

Sat in my GCSE history class in year 11 at high school I was immediately enthralled by the topic of WW2, I didn’t struggle with it, I didn’t dread going to classes and I certainly didn’t find the homework a hassle. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when I passed my class with a Grade A. Unfortunately when I got to sixth form at lancaster Girls Grammar the topic was on the 16th Century revolution, unlike Ripleys sixth form who got to study WW2 in more depth (no bitterness at all). Since then I have always been interested in books based on or around that period of time, especially on Auschwitz. This is what has fueled my desire to actually go to Poland and see Auschwitz for myself, hopefully in May this year.

Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps built in Poland, just outside Krakow during the war (1939-1945) by the Germans.

Auschwitz 1 was the base camp

Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau) was the extermination camp

Auschwitz 3 was a labour camp

It also consisted of 45 satellite camps.

Throughout the years of 1942-1944 thousands of Jews from all over Europe were taken there and gassed to death. They had no idea what was happening to them and a few last letters that have been discovered are on display at the London Imperial War Museum (complete must see for history geeks like myself)

Despite the devastating and disgusting things that went on at Auschwitz a common belief is that it only happened to Jewish people. The German army targeted anyone that was different, and this included Jehovah’s Witnesses and people from minorities.

It is now common knowledge that medical experiments also took place in Auschwitz 1 on the prisoners.One of the most well known physicians from this period of time was SS captain Dr.Josef Mengele, also known as The angel of death due to his cruelty when deciding who would retain for work on the camps and who would perish in the gas chambers. To read more on Mengele check out http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007060

The types of medical experiments that took place were pseudoscientific research on infants, twins and dwarfs as well as preforming forced sterilizations, castrations and hypothermia experiments on adults. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189

The above website also supplies details and figures on how many Jewish people were transported to Auschwitz to be exterminated,

Hungary - 426,000

Poland - 300,000

France - 69,000

Netherlands - 60,000

Greece - 55,000

Bohemia and Moravia - 46,000

Slovakia - 27,000

Belgium - 25,000

Yugoslavia - 10,000

Italy - 7,500

Norway - 690

The majority of these people will have immediately been sent to the gas chambers, a small amount of them will have been sent to work in the labour camps and will have eventually succumbed to death due to starvation, disease or murdered by one of the guards.

In Auschwitz stood “the black wall” were SS guards would execute thousands of prisoners. This type of inhumane treatment is excellently portrayed in the film Schindler's List and innocently hinted at in the book The boy in the striped pyjammas.

As well as these a book I thoroughly enjoyed and successfully brought me to tears was The man who broke into Auschwitz. This book is an account of the life of Denis Avey, who was a British solider serving in WW2. He was captured and made prisoner at Auschwitz, witnessing the terrible things that took place. He managed to befriend a couple of the Jewish people and one day swopped places, exchanging his British uniform for their striped one. This way he got to witness first hand the horrific conditions the jewish people had to endure, living and sleeping in filth, slowly being starved to death, whilst at the same time being expected to work to their full potential all day long. If these requirements were not met, for example falling over or passing out due to exhaustion, they were shot.

This book is definitely worth a read.

I have always had an interest in history but as I have said before WW2 and the regime of Nazi Germany is a real interest of mine.

There is a lot to take in and learn about WW2 but i do recommend London’s imperial war museum for any one that is interested in learning in depth about what and why it occurred. I will be sure to blog about my experiences and put up my pictures from my trip to Auschwitz.