Thailand's great King
This four-part series is intended to help Thai children learn to read, talk and write about their King in English.Part 4: The hardest worker
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can hear this section by clicking here.
The main
reason that Thai people love their King so much is that he spends so
much of his time working for them. During his 60 years on the
throne, he has been just about everywhere in
Thailand helping people, especially in faraway areas that you can only
reach by walking.
His Majesty has been
especially interested in helping his people have a good environment to
live in. This means keeping Thailand's forests, fields, and farmlands
healthy and ensuring there is enough water at all times. And when there
is too much water, it means keeping it under control so that it doesn't
flood the countryside. Indeed, the Thai King is one of the world's
experts on water management.
It
is interesting to watch His Majesty work. When he travels to faraway
areas of the country, he always likes to carry maps with him. Many of
the maps he has made himself. His uses different kinds of maps — the ordinary flat maps we
use, of course, but he also uses aerial maps and photos taken
from planes, helicopters and even satellites. That way he can
see exactly where the forests, rivers and fields are and he can see if
the environment is being damaged. He is very organised and keeps
detailed records on every place he visits. He also takes photos
everywhere he goes. As a result, he often knows more about an area than
the people who live there.
Wherever he goes, the King likes to talk to ordinary people. He asks them many questions about their problems and he gives them advice on how to solve them. More than that, His Majesty has sponsored hundreds and hundreds of projects helping people to help themselves.
One of the
most important ideas he has given to the people living in the
countryside
is how to use their land correctly. He suggests they divide it into
different parts, some for rice farming, some for a fish pond, some for
growing fruit trees and the rest for their house, a vegetable garden
and for their
animals. That way they can always have what they need and they can sell
anything extra they produce.
His Majesty is also very interested in education, especially for children who are far away from the good city schools. He helped begin a distance education programme using television. Every day Thai students can see real lessons from a school next to his palace in Hua Hin. Sometimes His Majesty even teaches some lucky students from that school himself. Would you like to be in his class?