The Dying Beach by Angela Savage Page B

had brought along a foreign consultant that evening, a Filipino geologist, to outline plans for the development. Paul was following the consultant in English and the translation from Thai, unaware there were any problems until Pla leaned in close to him and whispered behind her hand.
    â€˜The words he is using, they are too big, too technical. The villagers cannot understand.’
    â€˜Why don’t they say something?’ he asked.
    â€˜They are too afraid.’
    â€˜Why don’t you say something then?’
    Pla pursed her lips and shook her head.
    â€˜Should I say something?’ Paul asked.
    Pla nodded eagerly.
    â€˜Excuse me, Mister Santos,’ Paul piped up. ‘Would you mind using simple words? Some of us are having trouble following.’
    The consultant was an affable fellow who didn’t mind at all. But the Thai interpreter’s smile turned icy.
    After the meeting ended, Paul asked Pla why she hadn’t spoken up herself.
    â€˜I cannot,’ she told him. ‘I have to kreng jai the foreign expert and his interpreter.’
    â€˜ Kreng jai ?’
    â€˜I am younger than them. They are more educated than me. I must show them respect. I cannot make them lose face.’
    Paul frowned. ‘But what if they’re wrong?’
    â€˜Doesn’t matter,’ Pla said.
    Kreng jai . What a concept. Paul came from a country where everyone was fair game, especially those in positions of authority. If you sounded too polite in Australia you were mocked for being ‘posh’. The closest thing to kreng jai was known colloquially as ‘brownnosing’—and was not something to aspire to.
    â€˜So did I make those guys lose face?’ he asked Pla.
    â€˜You’re a farang,’ she shrugged. ‘It’s not the same.’
    â€˜So I did make them lose face.’
    â€˜You saved face for the villagers,’ she said.
    That was the moment he fell for her. For the first time since arriving in Thailand, Paul felt that he’d made a difference, his presence was worthwhile.
    After that first night, Pla pleaded with Paul to let her be part of the monitoring work, taking it upon herself to support the villagers’ participation in the consultation process. She did a great job of encouraging the elders to use their seniority and authority to ask the questions that were on everyone’s mind. She monitored the bulk of the meetings that took place between company officials and the villagers, posting Paul photocopies of her meticulous notes, together with her laboured English translations, so he could compare her account with the final version in the EIA report. Being on a volunteer stipend, Paul couldn’t afford to pay Pla. Not that she ever asked for money. If he could work as a volunteer, she said, so could she. The most she would do was stay with him when he came to Krabi and let him buy her dinner.
    He kept their relationship a secret from his colleagues at TEDO. As far as his boss was concerned, Paul’s enthusiasm for the research in Krabi was driven solely by his desire to contribute to TEDO’s campaign to reform the way Environmental Impact Assessments were conducted in Thailand.
    â€˜EIAs work opposite to the way they should,’ Weeratham told Paul. ‘They’re requested once the engineering studies are already completed and the findings are typically adapted to legitimise the proposed project. No large infrastructure project in Thailand has ever been cancelled on the grounds of an inadequate EIA. We need to expose the flaws in the current system and push for reform.’
    Paul was fired up, by both Pla and their shared purpose. With Pla acting as his interpreter, he sat in on village meetings, and met with local officials in Krabi and foreign experts in Bangkok to monitor the Environmental Impact Assessment process. He read up on water and air quality testing, wastewater and solid waste treatment, geology and seismology,