Back in 2006, the very first interview published on New Mandala featured pro-Akha activist Matthew McDaniel. Much earlier, when he was based in northern Thailand, McDaniel’s provcatively painted pick-up truck was a regular sight around Chiang Rai province. Since his deportation from Thailand in 2004 McDaniel has lived in Laos and the United States.
When he was forced to leave I am not sure what happened to his old wheels.
Now in the United States, he has recently daubed his new “campaign van” with characteristically blunt slogans. One reads “The Queen of Thailand Takes the Land of the Akha People”. Pictures of McDaniels’ new wheels are available here.
Seemingly as passionate as ever, his current campaigns focus on challenging evangelical church groups who fund Akha evangelisation and on pressuring the Oregon State Board of Higher Education to rescind Paul W. Lewis‘ doctorate. He has also recently devoted particular effort to criticising the Chiang Rai-based missionary work of Paul and Lori Vernon.
New Mandala readers looking to find out more about McDaniel’s brand of activism will find a bounty of information and argument about these and other issues on his website: www.akha.org.
5 responses so far ↓
1 jonfernquest // Sep 7, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Too bad Matthew has taken to denigrating Thai Royalty.
He’ll never get anywhere that way.
He’s mistaking the center with the periphery.
It was low level civil service functionaries not being adequately monitored who did the evil things in the hills that he witnessed.
Matthew was a brilliant investigative reporter.
Yet another case of squandered Farang resources in Thailand.
Because Thailand is open in terms of population flows, a sort of global entrepot of people instead of goods (in much the same way as Singapore rose as a duty-free entrepot for goods) Thailand continually has opportunities to harness this brainpower, but it squanders these opportunities.
For example, there is a brilliant former director of a museum in Europe retired in Chiang Rai. Does anyone put him to use in the museum studies program at the nearby university?
There was a brilliant Hollywood post-production engineer from LA with patents to his name who became a chronic alcoholic and is now rotting in Suan Phlu immigration prison, if not dead. (Matthew knew him well, he urinated on the wheel of his truck, after which he tried to run him over).
There was a brilliant Cambridge educated engineer and business consultant operating out of Singapore who actually owned a farm below the university I taught at, who taught very practical and priceless classes in project evaluation (NPV, ROI calculation and things like that) at the university until the clueless 60 year old business dean (the same one who lied, cheated, and stole from me) decided pompously without having a shred of relevant knowledge that his knowledge was not sophisticated enough, so he taught at the science department upstairs instead that had a Farang dean , the same dean who brought his Nobel laureate friend to campus for a talk.
I could go on and on, but hopefully the powers that be will one day learn to harness these resources for the good of the country. These Farang after all: 1. prefer live in rural Thailand, 2. work for almost free, and 3. could be used to give poor people who cannot leave the country for an expensive education in places like ANU, a world class education, but they often pose a threat to the petty little fiefdoms that some of them have and pull up their Wizard of OZ curtains.
2 jonfernquest // Sep 7, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Matthew and Paul Handley have one thing in common. It was Thaksin that either threatened to kick them out of the country or actually did kick them out of the country.
Missionaries in Chiang Rai are like a gang (with the exception of the Swedish Baan Chiwidmai). Matthew’s right.
The only solution to Christian missionaries is Buddhist missionaries.
3 Lleij Samuel Schwartz // Sep 7, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Re: Jon>
The only solution to Christian missionaries is Buddhist missionaries.
When talking about desire, the Buddha said something to the effect of, “one can’t fight fire with fire.” Even though I consider myself to be a devout Buddhist, I shudder to think of the damage Buddhist missionaries would do up in hill-tribe country. Most Buddhist missionary groups that I am familiar with indulge in the same sin that missionaries of all religions are prone to…overzealousness. Can you imagine what would happen to the hill-tribes if groups like Soka Gakkai, the Dhammakaya Foundation, Santi Asoke, or even Falun Dafa got a hold of them?
No. The only solution is to instill in the members of the hill-tribes a sense of pride in their traditional folk-ways.
4 Matthew McDaniel // Sep 9, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Actually I consider the Thai Royalty to border on thugs when it comes to indigenous land rights. The Thai Royalty, including the Queen, is not above the law. If the Queen doesn’t like what the thug servants do in her name, then she should get better trained thugs.
On Akha is worth all the Royalty in Thailand frankly, the Royalty Cult. Not so much different than the missionary cult, since the work together. But the fact is that the Royalty have taken the Akha land at Doi Tung and at Hooh Yoh Akha and Pah Nmm Akha and no amount of hand washing will clean the sin off them.
Erica-Irene Daes is the world formost expert on land rights, and according to her special consultive status to the UN on these matters of land rights for indigenous peoples, the land of the Akha belongs to them, not the Royalty of Thailand.
Yes, I totally agree, there is a wonderful percipitate of the most talented people in Thailand, and Thailand kicks them out. I love Thailand as much as I dislike the Royalty and the police and army of that country that gladly persecute the Akha. And lets not forget the slivers in Forestry.
Many of these experts helped our project and still do for what we are greatful.
In the US we go after missionaries, the Thai government, and others who are bent on destroying the lives of the Akha. One of the most brilliant marriages, if a Devil marrying to the niece of the Devil can be a brilliant marriage, is the marriage of SIL with UNESCO. The misisonaries deleting and then deciding that what they didn’t delete will be the new Akha culture.
We shut down the SIL side event at the UN in may over this, they had to leave the room before they got worse.
Missionaries are about white global racism.
Say, anyone from Australia who would like to help us in closing down that Australian who has taken it upon himself to take away more than 400 Akha children to make himself rich.
More aboriginal lost generations.
Someone from Australia aught to stand up and expose the guy.
CGT mission.
Matthew McDaniel
5 Grasshopper // Sep 9, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Mathew, The Thai Royalty, including the Queen, is not above the law. Where do you think the law comes from? I always thought it was a design from the ontologically divine?!
Don’t mean to antagonize you – thanks for informing me.
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