• THAILAND

  The lost scavenger

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 13/05/2018

  » From the second floor window of their flat, Pretty Molly sees her slum scavenger husband returning from a day of foraging. Her snippy stray mongrel barks excitedly as Pretty Molly begins shouting out the window to him.

• THAILAND

  Eight cats, 10 dogs and a motley crew

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 26/11/2017

  » She's a gentle mum, an Auntie Mum who is now of an auntie age. For 64 years she has lived in our Klong Toey slum. Her name is Pu Glin, a common name from days gone by. It means the fragrant aroma of sweet flowers.

• THAILAND

  A slaughterhouse love story

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 02/07/2017

  » She's a slaughterhouse kindergarten teacher. Her whole life through and through. And her husband was a boy who grew up just over the footbridge crossing the canal to the other side, next to the temple. And her face becomes more beautiful day by day. Serene might be a better word. Her whole life of 48 years. She has been teaching slaughterhouse kindergarten children since her middle teens.

• THAILAND

  Money can't buy Miss Tip's love

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 07/05/2017

  » We never knew mum when she was young and not yet ravaged by cheap booze and hard hot years under the Southeast Asian sun doing unskilled sweatshop labour, living wherever there was work on the decks and holds of rusty out-of-date cargo ships in the Bay of Bangkok.

• THAILAND

  Tragedy of a street kid success

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 29/05/2016

  » Why tell this story? Why take the effort to try and remember an 18-year-old street kid who drowned in the Chao Phraya River, half snockered on drugs? So, even though dying and drowning were the last things from his mind, drown he did, die he did. And it was kind of his own fault.

• THAILAND

  A dance to fix a granddad’s broken heart

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 20/03/2016

  » She said, “I think I was dreaming. I was sleepy, but I mean, I sort of remember, and it wasn’t scary. Mum in heaven whispered ‘Ahh — ree — sah — rah ... my daughter, you’ve got to mend granddad’s broken heart and stop the pain in our family. Please do this for me, and I shall rest in peace. I didn’t mean to, but I hurt him so much.' ”

• THAILAND

  Slum pioneer swept away to victory

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 01/06/2014

  » Auntie Boon Mee looks and carries on in life pretty much how you’d expect a high-class Klong Toey slum pioneer woman to look and carry on.

• THAILAND

  Just for a while

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 06/07/2014

  » Miss Tang: she’s one of the happiest girls I have ever met. And you can just close your eyes and visualise her — a super kid at the top of her game of life. Hasn’t lost a battle yet, although she’s been battered and bruised much too often for any teenager.

• THAILAND

  A sprightly angel and a sacred tree

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 09/03/2014

  » Lovely Miss Sprite. Angel of the week — second year of kindergarten — winner of the colouring contest — elegantly going on five years of age. She has a voice pitched between the song of an angel and a chirping baby bird sitting on the edge of the nest, not quite ready to fly. Likes to put a leaf behind her ear — picked from that Sacred Tree behind their slum shack. Her mum used to do that too. Lovely features, she has a smile that could stop any herd of wild elephants that might be visiting the neighbourhood. As for her innate beauty? You would immediately pick her out of a crowd. There was a problem: orphan girls fetch a pretty price. But we dealt with that.

• THAILAND

  Miss Mott's Slaughter House survival

  Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 17/11/2013

  » This is the harsh story of our own Miss Mott and the home-grown, inbred violence and drug savagery that seeped into Klong Toey's Slaughter House a few years back. Miss Mott was Slaughter House-born in the Year of the Rabbit _ the most gentle of creatures _ destined never to hurt anyone or anything but with predators all around.

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