Have you ever been in a position (No, not that position JJ!) when you say to yourself “What the f****** h*** (flipping heck) am I doing here!” I don’t mean here in Chiang Mai, I mean here on this God forsaken planet! That’s if you believe there is a God to have done the forsaking in the first place. I have travelled extensively around Arabia, Asia and the back streets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and had many a reason to doubt the ‘Maker’s’ existence. My Irish catholic mother (bless her) would be turning in her grave, to hear her only, ex altar boy son utter such heresy. But doubt has a lot going for it.
Without going into Tsunamis, Middle East conflicts and Newcastle and Sunderland derbies, there are countless, seemingly insignificant, experiences anyone of which is qualified to sow those nagging, irritating, inconvenient seeds of doubt in, what is already, a confused mind.
Where was the descending finger when I asked for another pint of the devils brew in my local the other night and ended up serenading the ugliest Lady of the Night to be found on the backstreets of Chiang Mai. Or the time on the golf course when I chose the wedge instead of the 9-iron and plonked it straight into the water. Where was He I ask! And so on, and so on...
Despite the seriousness of the case I had to smile at the recent incident involving a 93 year old Australian guy who was recaptured in Myanmar having fled from Chiang Mai following rape charges. He is accused of raping 4 girls under the age of 15 at a local village in Doi Saket.
Although he has pleaded not guilty, should he be convicted it is understood he could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison. But the good news for him is he may only serve 10 years of that. At 103 years old it is considered unlikely that he will still be a threat to society...but you never know! Lock up your daughters!
