Politics: This is the bastard one really. The government want pp back from the landowners, of which there are 37. They haven't officially stated what they want to do with the island but it appears the plan may be to turn it into a 5 star resort,more exclusive and more natural.Move away from the backpacker,touristy,party island vibe. The government have offered the landowners money for the land, which they have turned down, demanding to return to the island. The government also offered them land further up into the mountains but the owners want the land they had before as it was well positioned for their businesses and the tourists. As such the two are at a standstill, since the government has said they will cut utilities, water, electicity etc., if they try to return.
There are also issues over the general town plans, since zoning has to come into effect, and officially there should be no buildings within so many metres of the sea. This would defo. knock out places like island divers etc., and pretty much require a complete rebuild. Plans continue to be submitted but are always turned down, either by governement and town planners or by the locals and landowners. Complete stalemate...
Legally in terms of what is standing on pp, you can work on what is still standing, i.e., repair, but you cannot rebuild anything that was taken down. Thai military ships turn up for a few days at a time to check there is no rebuilding happening. Also officially it is illegal to actually be on pp, businesses are not meant to be open, tourists are not menat to be there, volunteers are not meant to be there etc. but it is being overlooked since these are the people cleaning up the mess...which lets be honest means the governement doesn't have to. It is unknown what will happen in the longer term, it almost appears that the government is playing a game of stalling for as long as possible with the landowners etc., knowing that if this isn't sorted by next high season, then no-one will have money and they will have to give in to the governments demands,as they will have no businesses left. Many of the locals want to return but need jobs to come back to, which is where organisations like hi phiphi help as they are paying the locals 200/300B a day to help with the cleaning and repairs, and that money comes straight from donations. Some locals don't want to return though, due to their beliefs in ghosts etc., a lot of interdenominational cleansing ceremonies are held but...
Its sad for people like Kuhn Charlie who owned and lost princess and charlies, and 270 of his staff as he really wants to be back and is dealing with a lot of the politics for the thai people.
This puts everything in limbo, since the buildings which have been cleared and repainted etc., are able to open and operate but no-one knows whether in a month or 4 months time the government and military are going to turn up throw everyone off and bulldoze everything. I s'pose I am not sure how I feel about it, in a way maybe ecologically, environmentally it wouldn't be the worst thing, to return pp to how it was years ago, make it more exclusive and more like a national park again. Yet all those people who have lived and worked there for 30 odd years deserve to be there too...I don't know, and guess no-one does.
One of the temp. ideas to make things more difficult for the government is to buy loads of the army style tents that you can sew together, so the locals can mark their land and sell whatever they can get their hands on to make some money...it certainly isn't rebuilding, but when the people are there it is harder to get rid of them.
But the different volunteering organisations are slightly competitive too, which disillusioned me a lil bit also. Svenska set up a foundation through the lions and banks and newspapers in sweden which has been doing amazingly well, since so many swedes were effected by this. Her foundation allows people to sponsor families or orphans or individuals that were displaced from pp and Khao lak, people that haven't returned to pp but are trying elsewhere at the moment. They fund things like pots and pans and cookers etc. One family for instance, the mother was lost, and the father managed to get work in phuket making 200B a day. His 2 daughters go to school there, so he spends 150B a day getting motorbike taxis to take his girls to school then go to work etc., the remaining 50B has to feed them and pay rent, so her foundation bought him a second hand motorbike. The donors, are are allowed to choose what their money goes towards, hospital supplies, tools, support or funding for the longtail boat owners, the building of memorials.Things like that that make a direct difference to the local people. However certain people (farang) on pp are pissed about this, as they are not seeing the money, they think she's using it for the dive shop she manages or rent or whatever, all because it isn't going to their particular organisation. Its sad listening to people say awful things about things they know nothing about, assuming the worst about people. Svenska's foundation donates money for precise things like spades, wheelbarrows, her dive center has given tanks and dive equipment to the dive camp but still...her patrons want the help to go direct to people, and the swedish lions are watching where the money goes you know? Her patrons don't want to fund cleaning up pp because the government may still take it, they want to give to the families, the schools, the orphans. I don't know it just made me a lil sad.
Similarly the dive camp people become quite snobby and elitist whilst being looked down on by the landbased cleaners cause they are not walking round covered in dust and carrying hard hats. It is all like competition, you can be sat somewhere and you'll hear people comparing what work they'd done that day, oh I ripped down a wall, oh i painted this, i carried this...like its all a game. A lot of the landbased volunteers make comments about tourists, or anyone not specifically doing what they are, and make people really uncomfortable. The island needs the tourists, who do they think is buying food, drink, lil souvenirs from the locals? Make them uncomfortable and they won't return. Or me for instance, the first day I walked round someone actaully said to me, are you just here for a good look. They don't know that my husband, child, friend isn't still missing, or didn't make it, or my presonal actual story y'know. People even started making Turtle feel uncomforatble at times, using him like a prop to show his wounds and who had made it, very contrived in a way to try and get more money for the cause (fair enough, but ask him first). Quite a few film crews were there whilst I was and people were telling them he'd do interviews without even asking him, and which he didn't wish to do. You know none of it malicious but very few people actually thinking it through, thinkning that different people are dealing with this in different ways, and whilst some may like rehashing details in order to get more donations, others don't want to. This was also effecting people like Boucher,gayer etc., who all felt like outsiders and would avoid certain places because of the volunteers and comments, although they are all doing the dive camp stuff whenever they are not having to make money to stay in Thailand.
Even the dive camp are not dealing that well with the volunteers they have. It is expected that you will do it everyday to get your one meal and rent paid for. But some people have to work occassionally to have money for the other meals of the day, or to buy drink and do visa runs and things. If you are known to be working for money you are looked down on by the dive campers. I mean gayer and his chick live together and gayer does it everyday, but they were told that coz she doesn't do it everyday they want to only pay half the rent. I mean what the fuck! And obviously there are tourists and people I contacted over here that are going over to do this but your only made to feel like one of them if you do it all the time. And a lot of these people are paying to fly there and help out, this may be their one holiday of the year.
It just disappointed me I guess, and a lot of this stuff doesn't get beyond the island so...
Basically I feel I left (as in stopped living there) at the right time, it isn't the island I left and hasn't been for over a year I think. I will miss the people (some of) but not the place.
Tousi now has his own bar which is the nicest place on the island. It is up at viewpoint resort, which is kinda normal, and has beautiful views still. Tousi is same,same as always, gorgeous!!!, and the old stools from karma are there, and none of the volunteers know about it, so you can feel normal and be with the old timers which is lovely. An oasis of pseudo-normality :) The thai people I knew from before were definitley the nicest, most understanding and happiest to see me which was lovely.
It does make being in the uk easier though, and has changed my priorities a lil. I am going to make the most of being here, and actually live in the now, as that place I've been in my head isn't there. I will still save my money but who knows where for...kind of excting actually.
