Thaiprisonlife.com
This morning I got an email from Richard Barrow, probably Thailand's most prolific and successful blogger and independent website manager. I first met Richard in 2002 when I visited his school in Paknam for the very first feature I did as editor of the Bangkok Post's brand-new learning post section.The reason I went there was that Richard had set up what was, and still is, Thailand's best school website. As the learning post editor, I wanted to showcase some of the best the Thai educational system had to offer and this was the perfect place to start.
While I was there, I met one of his star students, Panrit “Gor" Daoruang (photo below). At 16, Gor was already "veteran" webmaster drawing in thousands of visitors a day from all over the world. In looking at his work I was very impressed with his creativity and his interest in introducing all things Thai to the rest of the world. I felt he would be an excellent columnist for the learning post.
I was right. He quickly became our most popular columnist, but not exactly for the reasons I had anticipated. At first, he wrote about his life as a typical Thai teenager which was interesting enough, but it soon became apparent he was a teenager living on the edge. Drugs and girls came into his life and with them came run-ins with parents and police. His columns began to come in sporadically despites Richard's best efforts to keep him disciplined. Finally, he had to give up his column as his problems become more and more serious.
For the past two years Gor has been in prison serving a three-year sentence for a drugs offence. With Richard's help, however, he has maintained his huge international following. The reason for Richard's email was to alert me that Gor had been featured in the world famous Christian Science Monitor newspaper.
This is a story you will definitely want to read and you can access here.
For a chronical of his life in prison, go here.
And to see my original story on Richard's school, go here.