Author: Akha Drug War

Across the US by horseback for Akha Human Rights.

We pause at Douglas, Wyoming, in part because we are out of diesel, but we are on the way home with horse Hampton, in a used but solid trailer. I can’t say I mind driving now, but I can’t say I mind riding either. Course Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa might test the mettle of anyone out for a day’s ride.

A great view in Wyoming:
http://www.akha.org/images/rideforfreedom/wyoming.jpg

A great Akha woman and a great horse. Michu and Hampton.
http://www.akha.org/images/rideforfreedom/hamptontrailer.jpg
A few recent pictures of the drive west on the last leg of the Ride for Freedom.
http://www.akha.org

We’ve been traveling 470 days today.

As we slowly progress west, taking time to raise funds for more diesel while we pause in various towns, the weather changes, and for the first time we see mountains again. Real mountains.

Writing on the journey, and reflecting on all the people we met and keep meeting, passing the story of the Akha people to as many as we can.

America is a great country and we met so many extraordinary people.

At 8 am on March 22, 2010 Hampton and I crossed First Street in New York City to the UN building.

After an 18 hour ride from west of Newark, across the George Washington Bridge, to New York City, Times Square, and Rockefeller Center we arrive at our destination during a light rain, and almost no one to hold the camera and take a picture.
We would like to thank God for all our health and safety during a very long trip across America, a different town every night, a thank you to all the hundreds of people who helped in every possible way, to people who donated, to the newspapers and TV stations who ran stories, and to all the people who gave rides or took the time to hear our story about the Akha people.

We’d also like to especially thank the police of New Jersey, the Port Authority and the New York Police Department for their exceptional help in the last 18 hours of the Ride for Freedom. As we were making our way across the George Washington Bridge, a huge architectural structure, one escort patrol car of the Port Authority began playing Ray Charles “America” over his PA system. I was walking Hampton, who upon hearing this, quickened his pace and I had to run to keep up.

We crossed through Times square at 6 am to bright lights and still mostly empty streets, having come down Broadway.

I’d also like to remember our board member of many years, John Nance who passed away a few weeks ago.

And I’d also like to remember Rob, a fantastic accordion player in Grants Pass Oregon, who also passed away a couple weeks ago.
Day 29: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElcQ8aVCyqI

We had many difficult experiences, few bad experiences. Always somehow by the skin of our teeth we held on and moved on.

Our goal was to educate as many people as possible about the Akha. We gave out thousands of business cards and flyers across America and talked to thousands of people about the situation of the Akha people.

During our trip the Queen of Thailand had to take down her website for Hooh Yoh Akha where she stole Akha land.

There will still be  more videos, and there will be more projects.

Currently we are waiting for the start of the UNPFII at the UN come April 15. After that we head back to Oregon.

There is writing to do, video to compile, and time needed for a good rest. Maybe even go fishing. We weathered one of the worst winters in US history on the east coast.

Hampton is eating green grass, grain, and enjoying retirement. One great horse.

Day 382:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnGLQgW8Ojo

The videos are all now up http://www.youtube.com/akhazauh

Thank you for all your help and friendship.

Matthew McDaniel

The Ride for Freedom has now arrived outside Phily, on its way some 4,000 miles by horseback and bus, to the UN at NY City.

The Ant in the Queen’s Tea Cup

Tomorrow we ride into Philadelphia to see a friend on our way to the Jersey state line and New York City which is only about 6 or 7 days away now.

We got three warmer days which has been nice, since basically a glacier crash landed on the NE part of the country. In Maryland we rode down roads that had 6 feet piles of snow still stacked up beside the road.
We will be ending our Ride for Freedom at the UN in New York. But in the mid part of April we will be attending the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for two weeks before heading back to Oregon.

The Forum, as we call it, draws indigenous from all over the world, presenting their cases and especially networking with other activists. We have been bringing the cause of the Akha there to the UN and also at Geneva for several years now.

A letter of Allegation was sent to the Govt. of Thailand and the substance of it can be seen here, the first time the Akha got some help like this:
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/category,COI,,,THA,4a66d9a3c,0.html

The Queen’s Royal Project referred to in the paper, subsequently took their website down, linked here:
http://www.chaipat.or.th/chaipat/journal/aug03/hill_e.html

My friend in Wash. DC promised he would drop a couple copies of the Gazette off at the Thai Embassy, of our story which made the front page in many editions around the capital. The Thais did not answer phone calls on the subject of the Ant in the Queen’s Tea Cup.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/03032010/silvnew182105_32552.php

The missions of course keep taking children and calling them orphans like what happened in Haiti. A friend sent us this Native American song about missionaries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p42RhMyf6ns

We have now been riding by horseback for more than a year, 368 days to be exact. Did we get done what we set out to do? I think so. We gave away thousands of business cards and flyers, got numerous articles printed, got repeatedly on TV about the plight of the Akha, and talked to thousands and thousands of people, all from the random walks of life, who had never heard of the Akha before.

That has made it worth it. On http://www.YouTube.com/akhazauh we have more than 400 daily videos, with more than 190,000 views.

A few more people have heard about the Akha. And thanks to our friends who helped us along the way, if it was only to drop an email.

After getting Rotary International to quit supporting David Stevenson of Childrengoldentriangle.org we suspected they would continue on at first chance or maybe never even ended funding.

Rotary knew quite clearly our concerns because we had told them what was going on. Most of these children were not orphans, and they were being used to raise money.

Witness statements:
http://www.akha.org/content/missions/cgt/index.html
But here they are promoting the same outfit again, can we assume funding as well? You guess. Or write them.

http://www.d5100wcs.org/?p=213

But if you want to know how the children at Children of the Golden Triangle are used, then best you look at this video for yourself. David is more than glad to expand on his child labor plans for “his” 500 Aboriginal children.

http://www.akha.org/upload/video/cgtchildlabor.wmv
Our thanks to White Tara Productions

So why are so many men from the northwest bent on funding CGT?

Neither CARE of SAVE THE CHILDREN advocate child removals from the villages they live in. Neither does USAID. So why is Rotary supporting it? DO NO HARM?

After riding a horse from Salem, Oregon to LA and the Thai Consulate, continuing on across Arizona, New Mexico and half of Texas I arrived at George Bush’s house gate at 10141 Daria Ln, Dallas, Texas. More Secret Service agents protect this Drug War president than were protecting JFK in Dealey Plaza, a place Hampton the horse and I also rode to.
I picketed the former president’s gate two days, both Friday and the following Wed. On Wednesday the SS finally came up from Dallas office to see me as well as SS from inside the neighborhood compound.

Who was I and why was I sitting for hours outside the gate on a horse?

So more than a few SS learned about the Akha and George Bush’s Drug War, and the second Akha Journal with all the pics of those dead in the drug war that Bush and Thaksin Shinawatra cooked up in Thailand with DEA and the Consulate there.

Anyway, the SS finally let me be, after photos of Hampton and I, and we kept all our video and posted it to http://www.youtube.com/akhazauh

We are sure that George Bush heard about us and why we were there, in the name of dead Akhas, killed in the Drug War in north Thailand.

They asked me if I had a gun or knife, but no one seems to have noticed the guns at the rally where Obama spoke in Arizona.

Dallas TV ran a story on Ch. 8 on the Friday before we arrived at Bush’s street.

It is important that people be informed of what has happened to the Akha people, including ex presidents such as George Bush who created the policies that lead to these deaths.

I also have noticed that on this trip many people have told me that someone needs to “get rid of Obama”, some even suggesting how it should be done, with what kind of armament, etc.

Texas has had a higher than normal number of people expressing these views. I also met people who remember before the time of JFK being killed, saying that people talked the same way then. Unfortunate given history.

From LA to Phoenix Arizona, we have just crossed the Sonoran Desert on horseback and foot.  From Indio to Apache Junction, 310 miles of the toughest desert terrain one will find in the US.
We are resting in Apache Junction and will be here a couple of weeks before heading on to Tucson and Texas. We are now 1/3 of the way across the US on our Ride for Freedom for the Akha people. We continue to spread the word of their needs in Thailand.

You can subscribe to our videos on http://www.Youtube.com/akhazauh
or download them at:
http://www.akha.org

We continue to demand that the Queen of Thailand give back the land of the Akha people and that the missionaries return the Akha children to their villages.

Recently a wealthy American Richard P. Haugland stated in his newletter that he had returned all of the Akha girls he had at his home in Thailand to their villages. We realize that this is related to the fact that people in his wife’s office didn’t know he HAD ANY until we handed out our business cards there in Eugene, Oregon and told staff members what the OTHER half of the family was up to.

We still have many churches and missions to combat on this same issue.

We hope you will visit our websites and publicize the cause of the Akha people.

The Akha Ride for Freedom is leaving Monterey tomorrow for Big Sur and Santa Barbara and Los Angeles where we intend to rag on the Queen about taking Akha land.
72 days on the road, with horse and bus and five kids and the Akha woman Michu. This is one tough unit, a submarine on wheels, lots of work and a bit of fun. Yestereday the kids all got to see the Monterey Aquarium which is powerful stuff and thanks to the staff.

Bobby Morse is still trying to cover his back side in Thailand on the rape charges, word is money is flowing freely to silence families of the girls who filed charges.

This will never be over.

Richard Haugland is suggesting that he has returned the Akha girls to their homes from the Starfish Country Home in Chiangmai, we have yet to confirm this but maybe it will be good news.

The Ride for Freedom is about 20 miles a day on the days we travel. We have been feeding Hampton a lot, he is in excellent condition and he has had endless petting here in Monterey as the whole neighborhood comes by and comments on how gentle a horse he is. Well he wasn’t always that way. http://www.youtube.com/akhazauh for more than a 100 of our videos from the Akha and this ride.

And stop in at http://www.akha.org if you want to see recent articles on the Ride and the Akha situation.

Or join us at the Thai Consul in a couple weeks further south before we go look at the face of the Sun in Phoenix.

We are headed for San Francisco and the Thai Consul in LA.
The Drug War, the Land GRAB war, against the Akha, the Missionaries taking Akha children, the case of Bobby Morse, missionary in Chiangmai Thailand, out on bail after being arrested for sex abuse of hill tribe girls, we work it out every day in the ever hotter sun as we head south.

Join us.
http://www.akha.org or http://www.youtube.com/akhazauh for daily videos from the Ride for Freedom.

Today in warm Garberville, California, we soon take off for UKIAH, Santa Rosa, San Francisco.

Know someone at the Thai Consul? Let them know they have guests on the way.

Contacts with Media, let them know.

17.2 hands quarterhorse percheron Hampton and the Akha woman Michu and five Akha American kids and a 40 foot bus, Ride for Freedom continue the land rights protest, the drug war protest on behalf of the Akha of Thailand.

Crescent City, California

We are 35 days into the Ride for Freedom for the Akha people.
www.akha.org

You can download free videos that we get up daily and post to our website or youtube.com/akhazauh

Join us…..
Join us for the Akha “Ride for Freedom” as we cross America on horseback and with a billboard bus to promote education about the Akha people in SE Asia.

One way of saying it, is you aught to know who your tax dollars are killing, at least for a day anyway.

The US Drug War in Thailand and Laos continues.

Maybe you will do something to help the Akha?

The Akha Ride for Freedom has begun. Lincoln City, Oregon to the UN at New York.

www.akha.org
www.youtube.com/akhazauh

A ride by bus and horseback from coast to coast to protest land seizures by the Queen of Thailand, the Drug War against the Akha, Missionary removal of Akha children, the University of Oregon’s Ph.D. in Akha Genocide Program, Richard P. Haugland removing baby Akha girls in Thailand, and 10,000 nets to fight malaria in Laos.
Join our Youtube channel and help support Akha human rights.
This is a great trip, and we are meeting many wonderful supportive people.