a short historyest. 1978
Washington, D.C. ~ London ~ Bangkok
a short historyJust as there was no "World War I" until there was a "World War II", the first member of the Baud Society, Pit (born during a Boston blizzard in 1977) did not know herself to be so until the joyous birth of the second member, Joobie, on 9 March 1978, in Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.A. In that fair suburb of Washington, D.C. (with an early quick and lovely detour to Brazil), the Society grew and flourished over the next seventeen years under the loving care of Honorary Bauds MM and DD. During its teenage years, the Society suffered from creative differences and dissension in the ranks. However, the Society and its members emerged whole, and Nietzsche-like, stronger.
August 1995 saw the move of the Honorary Bauds to Hong Kong. At the same time, the core Society shifted its headquarters to London, England - Pit to start university at the London School of Economics, and Joobie to finish his IB at a boarding school in Surrey.
The following year, the Honorary Bauds moved again, this time back to their home city of Bangkok, Thailand, after almost 25 years away. Meanwhile, the core Society found itself attending the same lectures at University College London when Pit transferred there to study philosophy and linguistics and Joobie started studying philosophy and economics.
Over the next three years Baud relations stayed constant and true. The Society reached a zenith in Baud unity in 1997-98 with the establishment of a truly centralized Baud headquarters, a shared flat not far from the Arsenal football ground in north London. Dinner parties were held, laundry hung out to dry, and disputes frequent but unimportant. In the final year of university, the Society moved to separate dwellings but continued to pride itself upon a unified spirit, rallying its forces against finals-induced fear to revise for its one common examination.
Post-graduation, however, perhaps under the influence of the premillennial tension sweeping the globe, the Society split for the first time in its two-decade-plus history. In September 1999, Pit headed for sunny Phoenix, Arizona to work at a Montessori school and spend three months with beloved Adjunct Bauds Rooster and Bearsy Mead, while Joobie moved back to find work under the cool skies of London. Wonderful and strange adventures ensued over the next months as the members of the Society worked through thoughts and experiments on life and the future.
Finally, the entire Baud Society was reunited in early 2000 when Pit and Joobie independently decided to return to Bangkok to spend sometime in the Baud spiritual homeland and to work with the Honorary Bauds in the new family business - developing renewable energy projects in Thailand (mom & pop project development & finance). Their company, A.T. Biopower, is developing five 18 MW power plants fueled entirely by rice husk in central Thailand, the country's richest rice growing region. Financial closure for the plants should happen mid-2001.
What then for the Baud Society? Despite the uncertainty, or maybe because of it, these are thrilling times for the Society. To be continued...
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