User:Pawyilee

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[edit] About me

In 1971, I was a US Air Force sergeant in the Strategic Air Command B-52 Wing at U Tapao Royal Thai Navy Air Base, Sattahip, Cholburi, Thailand. In 1973 I was in the SAC B-52 Wing at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and returned to U Tapao 1974-75. In 1998 I returned to Thailand, going for the first time to the remote provincial capitol of Yasothon, and have been retired near there since 2001. I connect to thr Internet with a cell phone, but the connection is slow so I also use a free, fast Wi-Fi hotspot at www.aecomputer.com in Yasothon City.

"Lee" is my given middle name. "Pawyi" means Big Daddy พ่อใหญ่ in Thai. Pawyi Lee invokes images of "Phuyai Lee" ผู้ใหญ่ลี a wildly popular Thai country ballad that all Thai seem to know by heart. "Phuyai" ผู้ใหญ๋ simple means adult. "Phuyaiban" ผู้ใหญ๋บ้น is a village headman (that is, head of a numbered group within a township). Phuyai Lee is the mythical headman of an upcountry village in the 1960's whose people were just coming into contact with modernization programs funded with foreign aid.

The many, many verses of the song, all show Phuyai Lee as an assertive individual who thinks he knows every thing, but always gets it wrong. In the most famous verse, Bangkok sends word down to villagers to raise ducks and pigs. But Bangkok officials use a loan word from Pali instead of the ordinary word for pig. Phuyai Lee doesn't know the word's meaning but he issues the instruction anyhow: You should all raise ducks and swine!

Ducks they know, but one old man scratches his head and asks: What is 'swine'?

Just an ordinary little dog, replies Phuyai Lee, and that line - little dog, ordinary little dog - is repeated as the chorus after each succeeding verse. หมาน้อย หมาน้อย ธรรมดา You can find the song in Thai and English here [1]