The Story Teller

 November 28th 2022, 4 days after arriving back from 3 weeks visit to family in Sydney, I flew back to Bangkok to speak at a conference that links dearly to my program work. 


I have never considered myself a public speaker, nor feeling comfortable in taking up such the role. But as mentioned in the last post that I determine to do more to get used to the unfamiliar zone. So I did pick up the invitation to speak without my preparation. 


The speak differed from previous one that I delivered because this time, I used a lot of personal stories to tell about the bigger picture, what i heard from the community, what I have been asked recently, and What people think should be the response to that questions. It is not my stories, I am the agent to tell the stories when others cannot come forward to tell their own stories due to their confined context. 

Some of the most interesting questions being discussed? 

Could we compensate fairly to the loss damage that the people downstream experience do to the hydropower dam construction?

Could we live with the Mekong River with Its dams in operation now? Are you hopeful that decommissioning the dam is a possible scenario in the near future?

Constructing dam is for economic development purpose. There is very little that could be done to stop it.

Who is holding the accountability to the situation that is happening. 



Capture: my panel members in the session: hydro-political data and the future of the river and sustainability. Photo by student at Chulalongkorn University.

To be truthful, my mental mind is not quite in the good state with what I encountered upon return. But that is life. We face with multiple challenges whether we are prepare for it or not. And Yes, this one I didn't prepare for but have to face it. 



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