The Departed

I am currently at work right now, waiting for my Mac to arrive from Berkeley. So I can start editing. I guess I will have to borrow my friend’s.

I wanted to talk about something else. I recently watched the movie, “The Departed” with my friend who is currently recovering from an injury. I saw his stitches and I was about to throw up because it was pretty graphic. I guess that is what can happen to someone who hangs around in Thailand too much. I get jealous about his constant trips to Thailand while I am sitting here saving money for my new Mac.

Now going back to, “The Departed”, I see this type of corruption possible in Asia, Latin America, and other developing countries. “The Departed” came from the Hong Kong movie, “Internal Affairs”. I haven’t seen the Hong Kong version, but I can see this type of corruption possible in Hong Kong and especially in Thailand.

In the U.S. there was this type of corruption until the 1960’s when the Kennedy’s decided to clean up organized crime. It is hard to have rat in the FBI or the police department now a days being on the payroll of organized crime. If you get caught, the punishment is extremely severe. In other words, your life is over. You only see it in movies now-a-days.

I can see this happening in Thailand, since I used to know Tom whose father was the former police chief in Bangkok. By judging Tom’s personality, I can see how he pretty much got everything he wanted.

When I ask other Thai people about the police department, they joke around about the “1-eyed detective”. The way Thai people joked around about the “1-eyed detective”, they told me about how they pretend they look in one eye and pretending nothing happened as long as you pay the bribe. In Thailand, the police departments are more like entrepuneurs rather than police officers.

One day I remember Tom got pulled over for breaking a traffic law, then he showed the police officer his father’s business card and they let him by as if nothing happened.

I was surprised how he knew so many places. So his attitude towards women did not surprise me. His father is that way and his uncle who owns the hotel is that way. Tom does not know his mother, other than the lady who gave birth to Tom.

While Tom was in Japan, he was pretty much getting away with treating women like he did with prostitutes. That was until he made threats to the wrong people. Here’s a problem about Tom, he expects you to bring your female friends to him as if you are his escort service. If you refuse, he will make childish threats. Tom was raised that way. He did graduate from USC so I am pretty sure he should know better who to make that type of threats to and who he can’t make those threats to. Common sense, you don’t make those types of threats to people who are westernized.

In my opinion, I thought I got a fair trade from Tom. Tom used me to get together with one of my colleague at Intel. He treated her like the way he treated prostitutes, and later got himself into a mess where he had to drag others (myself). Tom got together with my colleague at Intel when he already had another girlfriend. The Intel colleague thought they were couples and moved in, but a month later he threw her stuff out of his apartment because she no longer satisfied him. Plus he was unable to see his other girlfriend. OK, so Tom used me as an escort service. So I thought I had rights to use Tom for my needs.

Tom kept telling me about Bangkok and told me if I visited Bangkok he would show me around. I visited 5 years ago, and he showed me around. I guess I can say I took good notes, because my other friends were so surprised when I showed them around Bangkok. Tom took me to places where no tour guides would take you. So I thought it was an even trade.

One day, I met group of university students from Vietnam. I didn’t tell Tom anything about this, but his nosey friend did. Tom expected me to introduce the students to him. I refused, so I later got one of his childish threats saying, “If I set foot on Thai soil, he would hire someone to wipe me out.”

That’s fine with me, so I replied, “I hope you do that, as long as you are patient enough to stay in Thailand, you have nothing to worry about killing someone.”

I can see a place like Thailand to have corrupted police department unable to fight against organized crime. I see something like, “The Departed”, happening in Hong Kong or most Asian countries. I asked many Thai people whether or not they trust the police, and most of them say, “No!”