Sane Borders, Sabotaged Ones and Gonzalo Lira

LINH DINH

[Attaroast in Ubon Ratchathani, 7/1/23]

Walking into Attaroast, I was loudly greeted by two lovely baristas, so life is good, no? Not exactly. If it wasn’t painful to walk, still, I’d be somewhere else. Again, they’re playing some jazzy rhythm and blues, with just about every line of every song a horrible cliché. “We were so perfect together,” “you broke my heart when you left me,” “I just want to stay with you forever,” etc. For a foreigner, such idiotic lyrics are easier to pick out, so suit them fine.

This article, then, is not written under ideal conditions. It took me at least four minutes to put my pants on this morning. I’m wearing long pants to hide my sores. Some look like wounds. I’m improving, though. My right toe is almost normal, and my left knee is halfway healed. Leaking toxins, my bodily border is still a much-punctured sack, sad.

I have just 13 days left on my visa. If I’m still unwell by then, I’ll take a taxi back to Pakse. It should cost around $70, so much more than a bus, but I won’t have a choice.

In mid-June, a 52-year-old Belgian went to a shooting range in Phuket, got a gun then shot himself in the forehead. He had overstayed his visa by more than 90 days. Now, he’ll really overstay, but why did this poor man resort to such a mad solution? Even if he had money for a huge fine and plane ticket back, he’d still be forced to spend time in a steaming, stinking clink, among people he can’t even chatter with. If he couldn’t pay, he’d just have to tick off each second until his embassy decided to get him out. To make sure others don’t follow his lead, it will take its time.

Most countries are deadly serious about their borders. Having violated just about every border worldwide, the US allows its own to be overrun, a self-sabotage orchestrated by an internal enemy. For this reason, it will also go up in flames, like France right now.

Every nation is its demographics, which it must protect.

Last month, two police stations in Dak Lak, Vietnam were attacked by Rades. They killed nine people, and took others hostages. To say Rades are indigenous to Dak Lak is not correct, for there were others before them, whom they’ve displaced, but Rades got there before Vietnamese and, until the late 80’s, it was still their territory.

Though it’s not clear what caused this incident, no one can deny Vietnamese have been moving into Rade land. No longer autonomous, Rade must learn how to be Viets. Their children must learn an alien language, history, dress code and eating habits, etc. This process has happened over and over, as long as man existed. Thoroughly compromised and bastardized, one still must fight, however, to define oneself.

For a year, I worked at a recycling plant in Ea Kly, Dak Lak, so I, too, was a Vietnamese encroacher. Its main streets had Viet businesses, but not far from these were dirt roads where Rades lived. Most of the tiny stores on these lanes were still run by Viets, however. Integrated into the national economy, Rades were using cellphones, wearing jeans and riding motorbikes. Though warned not to wander into Rade neighborhoods, I frequently did, without encountering problems.

In Pakse last month, I met a 56-year-old Englishman, Ade, who had bicycled across dozens of countries. Crossing from Malaysia into Thailand, Ade passed villages where kids and adults all stared at him without smiling. What is this old farang doing here? Muslims, they would rather belong to Malaysia. It vexes and infuriates them to be separated from their kinsmen and coreligionists by a border.

Normally, Ade would have stopped somewhere for refreshment, rest and some goofing around with kids. Nothing excites them more than to have an exotic creature show up unexpectedly. This time, though, Ade pedaled as fast as he could, to get away from those glares.

[Pakse, Laos on 6/16/23]

The overly cautious don’t travel much, and when they do, they stay in groups, so as to have their nation, if only in miniature, with them. This is only natural.

Arriving in foreign places, most travelers seek other travelers. Equally displaced, they don’t feel disadvantaged or lost, as they would among locals. It’s best, though, to mingle with compatriots. Along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, you’ll find thousands of UK vacationers carousing with each other, while eating fish and chips and quaffing Guinness. All they want of Spain are its latitudes.

Often, the most familiar can become hostile. Think of all the American dissident writers who have relocated overseas. Ordinary Americans are also leaving. Until borders are closed, this will accelerate greatly in coming months.

One American expat has been disappeared in Ukraine, and I’m talking about Gonzalo Lira, of course. Has he been tortured or killed? Why has no embassy official visited him? As Zelensky’s leading stocking stuffer, the US has a lot of leverage in this case, but it has done nothing. The US media have also said nothing. (Recently shoved aside, Tucker Carlson has spoken up for Lira.)

After the Ukraine war started in February of 2022, Lira’s commentaries gained a global following. Having been kicked out of a Kiev hotel, Lira narrowly escaped being nabbed, or worse, by two thugs, then he was taken in for questioning. Released, Lira kept talking, without tempering his analyses.

In this era of cowering men who only dare to act tough virtually, as “anonymous,” someone like Lira is certainly very rare, but wasn’t he dumb, too, you ask? For a vicious regime that’s busy sacrificing most of its men, what’s one more life wasted?

Having no chance to win from the start, Zelensky the buffoon just needs to prolong this carnage. Standing in the wing, Victoria Nuland smiles. As with Jewjabs, this is an act of Jewish revenge.

In one of Lira’s best videos, he points out how personal this war is for Nuland:

Fearless, Lira said exactly what’s on his mind. Even if he’s silenced for good, he’s shown us that respect for truth and being honorable still matter. He acted like a true man. By contrast, look at all the sick creeps arrayed against him.

Nations survive when there are enough men who don’t overly fear pain or even death, but only the betrayal of their mind and soul.

[Ubon Ratchathani, 7/5/23]

[Ubon Ratchathani, 7/5/23]

[Ubon Ratchathani, 7/5/23]

Source: Postcards from the End