Here's the letter of the month from an American in Bangkok. The Bangkok-based freelancer belatedly managed to touch the editors and got into print.(His original submission presumably was spiked, alas.) But then maybe these editors already have been secretly outsourced to Noida, India: hence the empathy. One wonders....but all freelancers, former or present, should salute S. Tsow, the International Herald Tribune's "despondent writer"
Dear opinion page editors:
I'm waiting to hear from you regarding my unsolicited submission on my experiences as an expatriate American living in Thailand.
In my wilder moments, I have imagined my little screed being circulated among your top editors, possibly even to the publisher, conceivably even to Pope Benedict XVI, President Bush and Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general.
I have fantasized about their reactions: universal cries of joy, wonder and amazement at my scintillating insights enshrined in crystalline prose. I have entertained the pleasant delusion that you were waiting till you could nominate me for the Pulitzer Prize before finally informing me that you planned to publish it on your front page, and syndicate it to a dozen other publications, thereby making me world-famous and fantastically rich.
But in my sober moments, a little voice tells me that it is not to be, and that your lack of response is due merely to an oversight.
So go ahead. Crush my ego, destroy my soul. Tell me you're not going to publish it. I am waiting.
S. Tsow, Bangkok
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