What is up in Thailand?

Bangkok’s two major airports are blocked by demonstration groups since several days. Billions of Bath are lost. It is of course very difficult indeed to come to an understanding why the authorities seem to be so incapable to deal with the situation. But a Thai government cannot do anything at all in a situation like this if it has not the Royal Thai Army on its’ side. The military power in Thailand has always been very strong; it is an almost independent power factor in the country and it has its own rules of how to interact with both the government and the Thai people. The present government and the RT Army are on different sides and the Army will most probably get rid of the government without acting out its own military power. So they use the PAD party to step up on the scenes and the government has no muscles to fight back. During the days to come we will see the government fall – and the Army has once more won a victory. The next government will be one that is backed up by the RT Army.
Democracy? Some Thai pronounce the word as “demo-crazy”.

Cardiac infarction in Thailand

I know that there is a growing number of people in Thailand who says that PAD stands for People Against Democracy. They are very much against the ongoing demonstrations, blocking Bangkok’s two airports, creating a cardiac infarction to the Kingdom of East. And this could be, or is already, a very serious blow to Thailand as a nation. It is not the streams of tourists only that is severely damaged, but also lots and lots of daily based cargo coming in to or out from Thailand. Bangkok newspapers state that the demonstrations cost Thailand about three billion Bath per day,
I have travelled to Thailand for around forty years, but I have never, ever, experienced a situation like this. Something has happened in this great nation and I do not understand what it is. It looks as if the yellow dressed masses are just seeking an open confrontation with the Royal Thai Armed forces, which could end in tradegies that I just do not want to think about. The armed forces are not something to just play around with. Those uniformed guys are just waiting for the orders and they are trained to shoot first and ask questions or discuss things afterwards. I hope – for the best of everyone – that the PAD people will pack their things and leave the airports without any bloodshed, but I am afraid that my wish is not becoming the scene of reality. I feel sad today.

Congratulations Herman – today one year old

Hip hip hurrah – to our Golden boy, today one year old. Pity only that he and his parents are stuck in Thailand.

Thai people and Thailand

During some decades I have looked at Thailand as my “second home country”. But I have been completely aware of the complexity of the Kingdom in the East and I have come to know that behind the surface of the kind and smiling faces there are also other traits, built up by years of experiences of life that I have not been able to share. Some foreigners use to say that it is quite easy to learn to know some structures in the country and some parts of Thai thinking. Some parts, but not the whole story. Suddenly there could be for us strange things happening. It is like sitting as an audience on a theatre watching the actors on stage, but behind the curtains in the background there is something else going on and you don´t know what it is.
At this very moment thousands of Thai people from the middle classes hit hard against the tourist industry. It is a very, very hard blow and it will strike back to themselves when the tourists take a distance to this in many other aspects great country. The ongoing demonstrations set up by the PAD
organizations will regrettably cause a hard long-term blow to Thailand.
My youngest daughter and her family is in Thailand these days. They are supposed to start their return to Sweden on Sunday. I keep my thumbs for them.

At last – on the go again

I got my new computer late last evening. It will take a lot of time before every program is reinstalled, but I am back in the cyber space again. That is all for now.

Freud’s warnings

Sigmund Freud, the father of the psychoanalysis, conducted a series of lectures for university people, among them many specialists in medical science, at the Vienna University during 1915 – 1917. He started to warn all those who wanted to make a further academic career to enter the fields of psychoanalysis because he knew very well that all theories about the psychic energies and the driving forces that he was to speak about were to be looked at as revolutionary material. He pointed out that several of his thoughts concerning sexual feelings among small children most probably would create a lot of resistance in the audience.
And true he was. Even though some very important parts of psychoanalysis reached a popular peak among the intellectuals during the 1960’s and 70’s there are today, in our present societies, much louder voices that proclaim that Freud was not a real scientist, that his theories are very old and not valid anymore and that he was not a man to trust as he was addicted to cocaine (which he was in his late years when he suffered from his jaw cancer).
Today most psychiatrists and psychologists, hand in hand with politicians and administrative servants, are looking for the quick-fix-techniques, mostly in combination with medical treatment. We have no longer time for the psychoanalytic approache as it requires both time and space for the investigation of the human, complex mind.
Freud predicted what would happen and I guess that he, if he were to re-enter his life today, would not be surprised at all. There is a lot of basic psychological knowledge of man that is denied and brought aside, parts of it just thrown away in the garbage can. Most people do not want the truth. They are looking for a simple life with simple explanations even if most of it is all wrong. Freud called it normal psychic defenses.

Crash – and a part of me was destroyed

A computer is just – a computer. I have to convince myself about this. But it is not so easy. Nowadays your computer has become a part of your memory, your calender, your address book to friends, relatives, business contacts and more. It is a tool for your everyday work. It is your library, your archive, your international Skype phone and so on.
I know quite well what could happen, but I did not expect it to happen to me, suddenly, without any prewarnings. Suddenly the screen went black and the computer could not become restarted. An IT consultant made his computer medical investigation and said that the BIOS card was damaged. A repair could take a couple of weeks. It would probably lead to almost the same price as buying a new computer.
My computer died in front of me. It will perhaps be possible to restore the hard disk and to save the documents. I hope so. I really hope so. I have a lot of my life there.
And I have to find a new computer. At present I just borrowed my wife’s.
I’ll be back.

Colleagues and competitors

This is always difficult. It is a balancing act and it is very easy to step aside when you´d better should have not. At those time it is easy to make a fall, hurting yourself or, perhaps, someone else.
As a consultant with a consultant company of my wife and of my own I have now and then to co-operate with a few colleagues of mine, who at the same time, or at other times, are competitors on the same market. Just as an example: I have several times brought together colleagues in a network or in a professional association, just to exchange ideas, sharing experiences, discussing theories, methods, basic values or whatever. And this is oh, so difficult. My colleagues act friendly, openminded (to a certain limit), interested, but most of them are very, very cautious, not saying too much, not providing me or anyone else with information that perhaps could lead to any critical notices of what they are up to. I think that people in my branch, being psychologists, are extremely sensitive for criticism. The art of applied psychology is a vulnerable art and quite a lot of my colleagues prefer silence prior to open expressions.
And yet I have to state that those who belong to my present, close network are people I trust and who I do like, and we have quite true and uncomplicated relations. But this does not reduce the general difficulties in being colleagues and competitors at the same time.

The split

I am looking around at the people I meet on my way to our office. We are at the moment living in a giant economical crisis and everyday there are stories told in media about hundreds here and hundreds there that will become unemployed, kicked out from the factories, consultant companies, service organizations and more. I am looking for any signals of worries or even fear when I am looking at the faces of the others. But I have found it difficult to read that kind of signals. Of course it could depend on me and my inability to really see and to understand, but I guess that there are other factors involved as well. One is that the majority of the people have not yet really understood the depth and the impacts of the present crisis. And the main reason why they have not understood is that they have so far neglected to comprehend the overriding steering mechanisms of the present society. It is too complex and as we live in a democracy built on a representation system, where I, myself, have just my vote every fourth year I have handed over my personal concerns to the government and to the parliament and that’s it. So, when there is a general talk about some financial crisis and such things I leave it to those “up there” somewhere. At least as long as the so called crisis does not hit me in my solar plexus causing an unpredictable pain. And on TV and in the newspapers I hear and read about almost the same comments over and over again, and all the voices are from the same sources as they always are, and all those people become “they” and my fiends and I are “we”, and “they” and “we” do not really meet.
So I am looking around, trying to read the faces and the expressions around me, but mostly I just see the “we-people”, we, who do not understand and who consequently do not really care.
It is a sign of a split in the society, a deep split. It bothers me and I think that we do not just have an economical crisis and an economical threat.

Perspectives on airline pilot recruitment

There is one major question of importance regarding airline pilot recruitment (and a lot of other recruitment programs as well) and that is: When is the recruitment to be considered as successful?
Is it immediately after some basic psychological selection tests and initial interviews prior to an airline pilot training?
Is it during the training phases during the time at the Flying Training School, where most of the pilot trainees seem to get along fairly well?
Is it after the school graduation when, let us say, most of the pilot trainees, but not all, recieved their wings and their certificates?
Is it based upon the statistics showing how many of the graduated pilot trainees that really found themselves a pilot job?
Is it during the advanced training on heavy aircraft in an airline company?
Or is it after some years of real pilot duty and after the scheduled check-ups by the instructor pilots, the line-check pilots and the captains/commanders on board?
What do you say and what do you think?
I, myself, will say that you cannot state that a psychological test battery has any value at all unless it is properly checked and adjusted and cleared, which takes several years of studies.
And this is to really reflect about in these days when new, young consultant companies pop up, presenting oh-so-very-good-test instruments.