Short Takes #4: Ann Pancake - Capital Realism, M.J. Iuppa - Daylight Savings Time

This essay caught my eye for an obvious reason: it was written by someone named Pancake. How could I resist?  Considering that this essay dealt with Thai economics, it was surprisingly lyrical.  Pancake has a way with words and she really shows it off here.  For example: "In my neighborhood, village loudspeakers rousted everyone at first light, frantic rapid-fire rat-a-tat Thai."  She often employs alliteration and assonance like she does here and creates a sort of prose poem overlaying the essay, much like the other "Short Take" we read, "Salt Hay."  While she is living in Thailand, she documents what she sees as unsustainable capitalism that speeds along at breakneck pace under promising billboards belying reality.  She deems this "Capital Realism."  She is promised a job at a college that is being built by near-slaves across the street and while it is going up she watches the progress of a disconcerting bulge in the shoddy structure, anticipating both the collapse of the building and a country growing up too fast.