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Picture in your mind a map of Africa. Now zoom in and picture Chad. That is a rough size comparison of Thailand. Now picture 65.28 million people. Now try and cram the two together. Pretty crowded, huh? Now try living there. This is your life:

~One out of every three of your friends doesn't have safe water to drink.

~Your father used to be a fisherman, but the sea near your home has been over fished so much that he can no longer support the family that way. He has gone to work in agriculture, along with 40% of all Thailand.

~Three out of the thirty kids in your class live below the poverty line.

~Your uncle works for the communication industry. He is very worried that the government will decide to privatize the industry and he will loose his job.

~More than one million of your fellow country men are unemployed. That's one million people out of a hot meal, assurance of a bed to sleep in, and a way to support their family.

~Your mother told you that she used to have trees behind her house, but they were all cut down years ago. She told you that when she was growing up, tons of trees were cut down. You found out the next day in school that over half of the tree cover was wiped out to make room for farms.

~Walking down home from school, you see cell-phones and tires and batteries (otherwise known as e-waste) littering the side of the road. In 2003 alone, your country produced 60,000 tonnes of e-waste!

If left to grow and fester, these problems will take control of Thailand. Fortunately, your government is working on it. They have hugely increased your countries export. The more you export to sell, the more money your country makes. That gives your country more money to help out it's people. Your government is also seriously thinking about privatizing some main industries that had been dependant on it, like the transportation, communication, and power industries. If your government doesn't have to support them, they aren't in danger of a financial crisis if the companies do under.

Your government has also come up with many ways to help with the e-waste, too. They have devoted a whole department to it, the Pollution Control Department. The Department is there to both stop the illegal transportation of e-waste, and take care of the e-waste already out there, by recycling and using secure landfills, or incinerating things that cannot be recycled.

You can relax. Your country has it under control. Make sure to recycle that pop can.