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As a European living in Thailand, I spend a lot of time thinking about how much potential is squandered by the ubiquitous corruption in Asian cultures. Many Westerners make the mistake of thinking it is something that can be addressed directly by "crack-downs" on bent officials, that you can remove a layer of grime and undercover a modern society, but the roots of this problem run so much deeper that I have serious doubts about whether it can ever be overcome. Readers of this forum will be well-aware that the self-replicating life-blood of twisted societal structures - such as abusive policing, permanent wars, parasitic politicians, ignorant populaces - is child abuse, in its many forms ranging from early exposure to aggression to years of educational incarceration. When we intellectualize this fact, however, it is all too easy to lose touch with the visceral reality of this situation for hundreds of millions of children. Today, a highly disturbing video is blowing up on Thai social media. It shows a father "educating" his four-year-old son. It was secretly filmed using a smartphone by the man's wife, the child's mother, herself the victim of years of violence, because she could think of no other way to save him - towards the end, we hear her desperately pleading "Stop, you'll kill him". Her release of the video onto Facebook quite probably saved the child's life and the widespread attention meant that he was not able to simply pay the normal bribe of a few dollars that usually resolves such matters, the police had to actually arrest him. Tragically, however, the seeds of damage have almost certainly now been passed along to his son. As a reminder of the sheer brutality which parents are capable of inflicting upon their own children, and of the importance of fighting this evil, I would like to share the video here. This is a link to YouTube. Please be aware that this is extremely upsetting, think about whether you really need this reminder, but for me it was an important insight into a primal instinct that flows beneath life here, resulting in an apathetic acceptance of corruption in daily life, the eradication of intellectual curiosity in children and the resigned acceptance of shoddy standards in everything. https://youtu.be/UmpWWEcO7HU

Hey all! I just kicked off FYA Asia, and I'm starting in Thailand! I'll be in Bangkok and Chiangmai over the next few weeks (probably with a visa run somewhere in there). If you're in the area and would like to meet up, send me a ping! I started Five Years Abroad about a year and a half ago, initially to find a new home for myself somewhere in the world, as I never quite felt like I "fit" anywhere in my country of origin. But within a few weeks, I came to discover that the problem was never where I was — the problem was that my culture of origin had forced me to be somebody else, and I was only just now rediscovering my true self! Five Years Abroad started out as a blog, but I added a podcast show about a year ago, and I'm working on launching a video series soon! Aside from fanatical pursuit of self-knowledge, I'm very interested in emerging blockchain-based consensus technology (Bitcoin, anything that I3 is working on, NextCoin, and others), freelancing, software development, travel... and every now and then I like to kick back for an evening of Minecraft (: Looking forward to meeting up! PHX