Example Title : หน้า 23/163

"All the crew gets from me for looking after this wretched barge is ten or eleven baht a month. Why should I let them be the first to die when I'm the one who owns it? If disaster strikes, they should look after their own skins because they have wives and children dependent on them for the rice in their bellies." He called the crewmen back to the oars and sat at the tiller with the rifle in his lap. By that time, however, the boat had drifted on and was approaching the mouth of the canal, where many cargo vessels were anchored waiting to traverse the lock as soon as the waters rose. The vessels were so congested that none could make headway, and the merchants were shouting among themselves. The danger of being attacked had passed. Although he had passed through the crisis safely, the whole episode left him with a deep sorrow for his fellow men — to go through such an ordeal just to avail themselves of a day's wages: "Didn't my own father ply the same river with the same wares and the same dangers until the end of his days? Didn't he become fatally ill on just such a voyage? Am I to learn nothing more from life than he did? Does no-one have spare time from the scurry for a livelihood — to rest and be thankful? Does society so despise the unmade man to ostracize him until he can earn himself riches? Material wealth is so ingrained in our values that we don't know a beginning or an end of it. Those who initiated material values are long-since dead — and how much better are they for their values in the grave? All are dead. Dead is my father. Dead will I be too in the none-too-distant future..." 1. from ibid. p.3-4