CPTnet
26 May 2010
THAILAND REFLECTION: A Thai prince from B612
by Chichun Yuan
[Note: “B612” was the asteroid on which the protagonistof the classic novella, The Little Prince, lived. Yuan, a member of CPT’s Iraq team, spent three days in Thailand on her way from Taiwan to join the team in Northern Iraq. The sixteen-year-old boy referred to in the release was an active member of a Thai social movement, which has as its motto, “Love is colorblind.”]
The father said his boy was an alien. A girl from a youth group said she did not like him before and never thought he was cute until today. Many people gathered here today at a temple in Bangkok to say goodbye to this little prince from B612.
The monk opened the coffin and pour coconut juice on his face, a ceremony to wash his face before he was sent for cremation. He was shot on 13 May.
The boy’s pictures were hung on a line between two trees. Postcards with message ,”love is color blind” lay on the table, inviting people to write words. People sat on the ground under the trees and listened to the music that the little prince used to sing. The father said the boy ran away with a guitar and he traveled along the big river to see how other Thai people lived. A girl from his youth group said the boy climbed up the Democracy Monument to hang a white handkerchief for peace in Thailand.
People attending the funeral shared other stories about the boy and his participation in democracy. He joined the “yellow” demonstration against government corruption. He also supported the grassroots organizing of “red” shirts on the street. Today, he made the activists from the red and yellow stay together for three hours, using his power, after death, to comfort their anxieties.
The funeral was my first time to meet the boy and listen to his lectures on democracy. It was too bad that we could not ask him questions. His father said he is now back to B612 and happier than people in this world.