Thai-dying a filthy mess
Martin Doyle
WAITANGI Day was a sad day this year.
On that day, a young Wellington woman Sarah Carter died in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. She was on holiday. Two other Kiwi women with her got terribly sick but survived. At the time, nothing seemed to be happening to investigate it. Just talk (‘they probably ate something dodgy down the road’). There was the unmistakable sense of something being swept under the carpet. Next, Sarah’s father came out fighting, demanding answers. And only then did it emerge that other tourists had been dying suddenly in the same hotel Sarah was in, and elsewhere in the city. Even finding out about these deaths was like getting blood from a stone. The final body count for a single month was six sudden, unexplained, deaths.
Rightfully, people here in Wellington, I know, were shocked to hear the hotel manager describe the deaths in his hotel as just a “coincidence”. Chiang Mai police quickly supported the manager and said there was “nothing suspicious” about the deaths.
At the time, it was maddening to follow all this, even from afar. Investigators couldn’t have moved more slowly if they’d been in rusty wheelchairs. Then they announced they were sending samples [of what?] overseas for testing. So we waited and waited...and waited. And now, six months later, Thai authorities have released their final report and conclusions about the six deaths. It is not a long report. I would call it simplistic, coarse and corny. It is full of ‘smokescreen’ terms you have to read twice, and endless sentences about what is “not” the reason for the deaths. It’s online and I would challenge anyone to work out what they’re actually saying. Outside of a script from the Theatre of the Absurd, I don’t think you’ll ever read anything like this again. It raises a million questions which will never be answered because the Thai authorities have refused to make any further comment or answer questions [I’m not joking.]
If I were parodying its contents, I’d say: “Six individuals died suddenly. We can only guess about why, or what agent (if any) did the damage, or if it just sort of happened, you know, or if the deaths are linked, or if all these people perhaps caused their own deaths by exposing themselves to something, anything, possibly somewhere else before they even came to Thailand. But, hell, it’s too late now to really work it out.”
In total contrast, I think of how New Zealand Police have investigated crimes against tourists. Take, for example, when Fernando Pereira died in the Rainbow Warrior bombing. Or the exhaustive investigation that occurred in Wellington when Mathieu Bastareaud [falsely] claimed to have been assaulted by local thugs. Or the murders of the young backpackers Sven Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen.
Sudden deaths and shocking crimes are relatively rare here, but we can rest assured they will be investigated to the hilt. Let it always be the way.
On that day, a young Wellington woman Sarah Carter died in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. She was on holiday. Two other Kiwi women with her got terribly sick but survived. At the time, nothing seemed to be happening to investigate it. Just talk (‘they probably ate something dodgy down the road’). There was the unmistakable sense of something being swept under the carpet. Next, Sarah’s father came out fighting, demanding answers. And only then did it emerge that other tourists had been dying suddenly in the same hotel Sarah was in, and elsewhere in the city. Even finding out about these deaths was like getting blood from a stone. The final body count for a single month was six sudden, unexplained, deaths.
Rightfully, people here in Wellington, I know, were shocked to hear the hotel manager describe the deaths in his hotel as just a “coincidence”. Chiang Mai police quickly supported the manager and said there was “nothing suspicious” about the deaths.
At the time, it was maddening to follow all this, even from afar. Investigators couldn’t have moved more slowly if they’d been in rusty wheelchairs. Then they announced they were sending samples [of what?] overseas for testing. So we waited and waited...and waited. And now, six months later, Thai authorities have released their final report and conclusions about the six deaths. It is not a long report. I would call it simplistic, coarse and corny. It is full of ‘smokescreen’ terms you have to read twice, and endless sentences about what is “not” the reason for the deaths. It’s online and I would challenge anyone to work out what they’re actually saying. Outside of a script from the Theatre of the Absurd, I don’t think you’ll ever read anything like this again. It raises a million questions which will never be answered because the Thai authorities have refused to make any further comment or answer questions [I’m not joking.]
If I were parodying its contents, I’d say: “Six individuals died suddenly. We can only guess about why, or what agent (if any) did the damage, or if it just sort of happened, you know, or if the deaths are linked, or if all these people perhaps caused their own deaths by exposing themselves to something, anything, possibly somewhere else before they even came to Thailand. But, hell, it’s too late now to really work it out.”
In total contrast, I think of how New Zealand Police have investigated crimes against tourists. Take, for example, when Fernando Pereira died in the Rainbow Warrior bombing. Or the exhaustive investigation that occurred in Wellington when Mathieu Bastareaud [falsely] claimed to have been assaulted by local thugs. Or the murders of the young backpackers Sven Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen.
Sudden deaths and shocking crimes are relatively rare here, but we can rest assured they will be investigated to the hilt. Let it always be the way.
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