‘We Serve with Love and Care’; was the motto pasted above the front doors of the youth correctional facility located in a small village close to Mae Rim, a motto that suggested a striking difference from the portrayal of such centres in western media.

When I turned fifteen, more than half a lifetime ago, I went to boarding school. For three years I was handed a superb education in an unparalleled environment and made friends who have stuck by me through the years.

“Some are born to endless night, some are born to pure delight,” wrote William Blake summing up life’s seeming favour, and disfavor, towards its subjects, its children. Blake’s parent knew their son to be a precocious poet and artist from a very early age, so much so that rather than send him to regular school they ensconced him to their pro-art home, encouraging to read poetry and paint ‘ til his prophetic little heart was content.