Chiang Rai News
Coffee a Force for Good in Chiang Rai, Thailand
CHIANG RAI – For barista lifers, amateur anthropologists, agro enthusiasts, sustainable development students and homesteading hipsters attempting to roast their own green beans, Mark Pendergrast’s Beyond Fair Trade is biblical.
West coasters have been long familiar with the humble plight and karmic mission of the Doi Chaang Coffee Company. They introduced Vancouver to kopi luwak, the famed and frowned upon civet “cat poop coffee.” Doi Chaang shook up the industry by promoting an ethical product from a 50-per-cent grower-owned business..
The Doi Chaang Coffee Company is a unique partnership between the Akha hillside tribe of Doi Chang Village, located in the Chiang Rai Province
.
For North Vancouver mining executive and Doi Chaang Coffee Company co-founder, John Darch, it wasn’t about the coffee at all. “I am not a coffee person. We focus on the highest quality, but it could have been any commodity that I tried to help sell. I am passionate about people, especially underdogs who, through no fault of their own other than the accident of birth, seem to have the world against them. This just happened to be Thailand, and it happened to be coffee.”
The eventual partnership between Darch and Thai visionary Wicha Promyong is a tale of bewildering serendipity. Their entrepreneurial relationship introduced the world to the concept of “fair trade.” Pendergrast has researched this intrinsic “family” tree with roots in Thailand and branches in Canada and created a dense compendium of coffee culture, genesis, inequity and hope.
Highland coffee cultivation evolved after opium raids in 1985 forced the Akha hill tribe to relocate. A ritual public burning of 3,000 kilograms of poppy seeds was the beginning of the Thai government’s crackdown. In an attempt to end the perpetual debt bondage of opium, a Thai-German Highland Development Program was established to help convert opium fields into sustainable cash crops..
A Thai German project in 1984 supplied 7,000 coffee seedlings to a group of farmers.
.
Coffee grows best between an elevation of 3,000 to 6,000 feet “in a girdle around the equator, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The beautiful locations are also among the world’s poorest and most violence-prone areas — in part because of the way coffee, a labour-intensive crop was grown.”
Failed tomato and cabbage production introduced pesticides, chemical fertilizers and growing erosion of trust
The Akha hill tribe’s history is one of displacement. Caught in the crossfire between the Burmese government, Communist and independent armies, “the hill tribe problem” in Doi Chaang and reliance on opium crops is an unlikely backstory for a cup of Arabica.
Failed tomato and cabbage production introduced pesticides, chemical fertilizers and growing erosion of trust. The story is a familiar one with indigenous people globally — sudden respiratory illnesses, increased infant mortality and suicide rates, malnutrition and the loss of faith in traditional healers. Poverty disrupted animism practices — no animals were left for traditional sacrifices. Christian boarding schools and an influx of missionaries encouraged religious conversion and children to learn Thai, not Akha.
The paradox was that despite the end of opium cultivation, there was an increase in heroin addiction with rampant smuggling across the Burma border of the “crazy medicine.” Women turned to prostitution and the HIV rate in northern Thai brothels skyrocketed from 30 to 90-per-cent infection rates.
Akha woman prepares a meal for her children
.
“Most villagers were poor in the midst of a land of plenty and could not figure out how to do any better.” Drugs, gambling, porn, computers, western clothing and lifestyles were quickly adopted. Even the thatch and bamboo homes were being replaced by lumber and cement.
Though coffee seedlings were first rooted in the area in 1977 (succumbing to disease and declining coffee prices), a Thai German project in 1984 supplied 7,000 coffee seedlings to a group of farmers. The Akha predominantly drank tea though, and despite being spoon-fed with seeds, loans and training by overseas donors, farmers were left to do their own marketing after harvest. Driving seven hours to lowland markets to sell, traders offered the hill tribes embarrassing prices, knowing their desperation. Often it barely paid for the gas to deliver it.
For the Akha, since Darch’s involvement, they’ve been growing more than just coffee. Schools, roads, health care, electricity, running water and possibility have seeped in. Birds have returned to areas heavily logged and stripped of life from mono-culture.
Beyond Fair Trade: How One Small Coffee Company Helped Transform a Hillside Village in Thailand By Mark Pendergrast
.Beyond Fair Trade is rich in coffee lore not just in Thailand, but in Haiti where French colonists supplied half the world’s coffee by 1788. Pendergrast knits history neatly together by examining the specialty coffee movement that began with Peet’s Coffee and Tea in California in 1966. Did you know the first Starbucks Coffee opened in Seattle in 1971? Consumer curiosity about coffee production was stirred. Coffee drinkers suddenly wanted to know more than where the cream and sugar were located in the café. Where did the beans come from and how?
Doi Chaang’s Academy of Coffee offering free classes on cultivation and processing to local farmers
.
In the spring of 2007, the Doi Chaang’s Academy of Coffee opened in Thailand offering free classes on cultivation and processing to local farmers. A slick Bambrati Italian roaster has replaced the antique 6-ton roaster hauled up the mountain in the spring of 2003 (after disassembly, using a German-language manual no one could read).
If you’ve read Paul Theroux’s Mosquito Coast, you’ll have an instant flashback to inventor Allie Fox building his “Fat Boy” ice machine in the middle of the jungle. John Darch and Wicha’s vision runs ironically parallel.
After reading Beyond Fair Trade, the weight of a pound of coffee will feel different. But you can rest assured that you’re drinking a responsible and storied cup of feel-good coffee with Doi Chaang.
.
.
Police in Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai Province have arrested a 50 year old man after the threatened to rape a 20 year-old woman and the proceeded to murder her 2 and half month old baby.
Police with doctors from Wiang Kaen Hospital and the Chao Luang Wiang Kaen Welfare Association were summoned to the scene of the incident to a 2-story cement house, Village No. 2, Tha Kham Subdistrict, Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai
On arrival they found Ms. Chanikarn, age 20, in a state of distress crying uncontrollably beside her 2 and a half month baby girl (Linlada) that was dead on the floor.
After calming Ms. Chanikarn, the child’s mother, said that at approximately 2:30 p.m she was out to collect diapers that had been dried in front of the house, while her 2 and a half month old daughter was sleep on the ground floor of the house.
She said she was suddenly approached by a Mr. Lee, about 40 years old, who lived on the opposite side of the road. He came towards her and grabbed her arm and threatened her saying if she didn’t sleeping with him he will go and kill his daughter.
Miss Chanikan refused and ran away, then Mr. Lee then walked into the house and grabbed Ms. Linlada’s leg, smashing the child’s head against the cement floor of the house. The infant died immediately.
Mr. Lee then just walked away and returned to his own home, leaving Miss Chanikan and her dead baby.
When police went to Mr. Lee’s home he immediately confessed killing the infant and was taken to Wiang Kaen Police Station for further questioning. Under caution he told police that he was sexually attracted to Miss Chanikan‘s and when her husband leave for work he took the opportunity to approach her.
He said when he saw her husband leave he crossed that road and found Miss Chanikan in the yard alone, he then threatened her to sleep with him, saying he would kill her child if she didn’t have sex with him. However when she refused he flew into a fit of rage walked into her home and murdered he baby. He said he was out of control with rage.
After killing the infant he walk across the street to his home and waited for the police to arrive. The police have charged him with premeditated murder and attempted rape. He is being held without bail at the local remand center.
Meanwhile, Miss Chanikan and her family were preparing a religious burial ceremony for the child.
Other Chiang Rai News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
CHIANG RAI: Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.
On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.
His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.
Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, Assigned Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai Pitanilabut, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Police/Deputy Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, has launched the operation ‘Bombing the Thieves’ Bridge’ in collaboration with the CAT Office, G., mobile phone network operators AIS DTAC TRUE NT, and local security agencies to cut the mobile phone signal and WiFi internet that criminals illegally use to deceive Thai citizens.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai stated that they will begin pressing the first action of the ‘Explosion of Thieves’ Bridge’ in Chiang Rai Province toward the thieves’ base of operations in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.
The territory surrounding King Roman in Laos. King Roman is now a full-service entertainment destination with an airport that welcomes travelers from Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, he explained.
According to Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai, this operation will have no influence on honest people along the Thai border, and it will only target cyber criminals.
They will also increase the arrest and prosecution of unlawful service towers, such as SIM booths, which allow gangs register SIM cards to swindle the people. Dealing with criminal organizations of foreigners and Thais who band together to deceive and damage Thais.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) suspended more than three million SIM cards on July 16 because the holders had not verified their identities with their mobile phone operators by the deadline, in accordance with the NBTC’s measures to combat alleged fraudsters’ mule accounts.
The names of the holders of 80 million mobile phone numbers used for mobile banking transactions did not match the names associated with the mobile banking accounts.
The NBTC would require mobile phone companies to authenticate SIM card holders and the names of their mobile banking accounts. The verification procedure is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.
In addition, the NBTC and Royal Thai Police have collaborated to combat illegal telecom towers throughout the country’s borders, disconnecting signals at 465 places, altering antenna direction at 470 towers, and dismantling antennas at 179 locations.
They are certain that the move will disrupt contact center gangs and other types of technology-based crime.
Other Chiang Rai News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
Police in Mae Chan, Chiang Rai, shot and killed a 28-year-old man who allegedly attacked a police officer with a machete. The officer was slashed in the right leg with the machete.
According to police, the culprit, known only as Mr. Toon, had been harassing local villagers in Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai, threatening them with a knife and using violet insults.
The village headman arrived on the scene to try to calm Mr. Toon, but he was shouting hysterically and taking swipes at him with the machete, so he contacted the police.
When the responding officer arrived at the site about 9 p.m., he attempted to calm the man, but he instead assaulted the officer, slashing his right leg with the machete. In self-defense, the cop had to fire his gun at Mr. Toon, striking him in the chest.
Mr. Toon and the policeman were taken to Mae Chan Hospital, where Mr. Toon died of a gunshot wound. Pol Sgt. Sutthikiat Phanomphraisakul was released from the hospital after receiving numerous stitches for his injuries.
Local police received a tip around 9.30 p.m. yesterday that a guy was causing mayhem in the village. When authorities arrived, they discovered 28-year-old Toon strolling along a public road, holding a large knife and threatening people. Mae Chan district officials attempted to contain the incident.
During a search of Mr. Toon’s home, authorities discovered methamphetamine consumption equipment. Locals told authorities that the man was addicted to Yaba (Methamphetamine) and an alcoholic.
The authorities are conducting an inquiry to determine Toon’s motivations and whether any underlying issues contributed to his violent outburst.
Other related news:
Chiang Mai Police Offer Cash Reward After Officer Killed
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/crime/chiang-mai-police-offer-reward/
-
News3 years agoLet’s Know About Ultra High Net Worth Individual
-
Entertainment2 years ago
Mabelle Prior: The Voice of Hope, Resilience, and Diversity Inspiring Generations
-
Health3 years agoHow Much Ivermectin Should You Take?
-
Tech2 years agoTop Forex Brokers of 2023: Reviews and Analysis for Successful Trading
-
Lifestyles2 years agoAries Soulmate Signs
-
Movies2 years agoWhat Should I Do If Disney Plus Keeps Logging Me Out of TV?
-
Health3 years agoCan I Buy Ivermectin Without A Prescription in the USA?
-
Learning2 years agoVirtual Numbers: What Are They For?