Thailand and Bulbs

Here in Boston it is winter and the ground is covered with snow.  But in the Spring the ground will be covered with a carpet of flowers.  Worth waiting for!  In Thailand it seems that the only thing that falls to the ground is money, and the only thing that people wish for the next season is money; money popping out of the ground.  It is true that you can't live on love and that beauty is never enough; but money is never enough either.  Daffodils, and Tulips, and Crocuses, and Irises, and Gladioli would grow in Thailand.  It would be beautiful.  Right now Thailand is mostly not beautiful.  But it could be.  And the flowers would make people smile.

Where I grew up the next door neighbors had an empty house lot next to their house.  The young son started buying bulbs and planting them.  Eventually large orders were placed directly with bulb merchants in the Netherlands.  Neighbors would help with the plantings.  I was one of them.  By the time the son went away to Harvard and then to the Sorbonne in Paris, there were over 100,000 bulbs that would bloom from  the Spring to the late Summer.  Paths and benches were installed.  Cars would stop.  There was a guest sign-in book by the side of the road.  People smiled.  Thailand could do this!

Years ago I had a job in an industrial park.  Nothing to see and nothing much to do at lunch.  There was a little pond near the parking lot where you could go look at turtles and birds and little fish and frogs.  The ground was marshy.  So I went to the owners of the industrial park and told them that if they donated bulbs I would plant them.  They gave me 1000 bulbs.  Two years later there were benches, and smiles on the faces of people at lunch.  Thailand could do this.

If you get the bus from BKK to Pattaya you see a Thai landscape that is flat and boring.  But parts of Europe used to be just like this.  Now in Europe Police stations and Fire stations have contests for the best flower box or flower bed or flower pot displays.  Here on Beacon Hill in Boston every Spring there is a Window box contest.  Winners get their picture and a picture of their plantings in the paper.  Now all of the buildings have window boxes, and plantings, and flowers.  It becomes the opening wedge of a new attitude.  Next you see people painting their front doors, then cleaning the steps and sidewalk every morning, then real estate values go up and crime goes down.  It starts with flowers and beauty and smiles.  Thailand could do this.

There is an island off the coast of Massachusetts here in the United States called Nantucket.  It is really just a big sand bar 30 miles out to sea.  The long, grey winter used to yield to an uninteresting Spring and few tourists.  Then a woman started planting Daffodils.  Then her neighbors started planting Daffodils.  Then there was fundraising and local merchants donating money and materials.  The media reported it.  Now in the Spring the entire island is a yellow carpet of daffodils.  There are contests.  There is a parade.  Tourists have started coming to the island in the Spring instead of waiting until the Summer.  Real estate values are up.  There is pride of place.  Beauty and caring did that.  Thailand could do this.

If you travel to the poorer parts of Thailand, you sometimes do not see a lot of beauty or a lot of caring.  The people often seem to be in a functional funk or a mental malaise.  Where they live is often visually boring, or downright ugly and depressing.  Flowers could change this.  Flowers of the bulb variety  are hardy and easy to plant and diverse.  If everyone in Thailand was responsible for just one flowering bulb per year that would be over 60,000,000 bulbs per year.  In ten years there would be 600,000,000 bulbs in the ground.  No other country in the world has ever done this.  Thailand could be known for something besides easy morals, and corrupt values.  People in the Kingdom are waiing less and smiling less.  They need flowers.  Flowers are not like people.  They don't expect to receive love if they give pleasure.  It's a one way contract.  They just give.  They give beauty and hope.

There is not one person in the Kingdom who could not afford to buy one bulb per year.  Getting down on their knees to plant the flowers would get many Thais back in touch with the soil of their own country.  Right now they just think of the ground as something that devalues their feet.  When you don't value the soil of your own country you are starting to lose touch.  Thailand is starting to drift.  It is as if their astronaut tether has parted and they are tumbling away into Space.  They are letting their own country slip through their fingers.  Skills at international lending and borrowing, and multi-national manufacturing contracts, and a stable baht, and respect in the UN will never be enough.  You have to love your country.  Flowers could help change this.  Thailand needs flowers.

There is some precedent for this.  In August of '03, in honor of the Queen's birthday and to help boost tourism, Thais in Chanthaburi province started replanting yellow orchids in the forests and in the National Parks.  All they need to do now is think outside the orchid box.  Imagine the Land of Smiles after the rainy season with 600,000,000 flowers blooming.  It would be beautiful.

Maybe 10 years from now; instead of just wet T-shirt contests, and gay pride parades, and transvestite shows--Thailand could also have flower box contests, and flower parades; and young girls who would want to become Miss Daffodil, or Miss Crocus, or Miss Tulip, or Miss Iris, or Miss Gladiolus.  If I can dream this dream so can the Thais.  But someone needs to show them the way.  Years ago I worked at a shipyard in the Caribbean.  The shipyard belonged to a hotel.  The shipyard was all industry, and tools, and construction debris, and litter.  One day I built a six foot long flower box and bolted it to the building under the bosses office window.  Then I called the hotel hortaculturalist and he came down and planted flowers.  The natives used to fight over who got to water the flowers.  The litter got picked up.  Then other homes and businesses started to install flower boxes, and flower pot displays, and flower plantings.  Waste sink water in this dry, parched environment was converted to 'grey' water that went to the flowers.  Thailand has no excuse.

Maybe when the present government is through with the mechanics and the salesmanship that is required to stabilize the country, they will start encouraging their citizens to plant flowers.  It could start at the temples and the schools and the Government offices.  If the government did do this I guarantee that it is what the current ruling party would be remembered for.  Nobody remembers a deal, or a contract, or a narrowly averted disaster, or a legislative bill; but everybody would remember Thailand if it was carpeted in 10 years with 600 million flowering bulbs.  I hope it happens!

© Dana. All rights reserved by the author.