Thai Cheese? You Bet

There is a limit to what the human mind can absorb. Especially in Thai politics. Hearing the names of Abhisit, Thaksin and the likes just gives me a bad mood these days. The latest newsletter by the one sent into exile a year ago on February 6th was a lonely bright light amid cheats and pretenders. But hey, I still feel good, and this is why:

Am eating nothing but bread and homemade cheese products made from pure natural ingredients only, with no preservatives or artificial additives, produced from fresh, straight-from-the-farm organic milk – and yes, made in the heart of Bangkok. I’m living on Thai cheese and yogurt these days. And it feels great.

Once in a while you just have to ignore these political clowns out here and enjoy the beautiful sides Thailand has to offer. One of them is fresh Thai cheese. Yes, I’m a cheese addict, and to know that from now on I can get natural homemade cheese at decent prices delivered to my doorsteps is kind of the best news of this year so far.

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February 8, 2010 | Filed Under Being Farang, Food & Drink, TTT - Top Thai Things | 5 Comments 

The Vongthip Letter Feb ‘10

Holding on: Following the burst of corruption scandals and in anticipation of the impending no-confidence debate, PM Abhisit had to replace/reshuffle five cabinet members in 1/10. Since the new year, PM Abhisit seemed to have become remarkably bolder in his move against corruption and arm-twisting demands from his coalition partners. He has also become more willing to risk his neck politically in order to deliver what he believed to be the best for the country.

His popularity soared when he insisted that all cabinet members abide by his “9 codes of conduct” and that they take responsibility by resigning when involved in a corruption scandal. Through out 1/10, PM Abhisit continued to deliver e.g. launching the THB 10 billion second Village Fund, publicizing fresh government direction and support for education on Teachers Day and Children Day, visiting the deep south to ensure effective and transparent utilization of additional development fund, opening new medical center for pollution-affected patients in the Map Ta Phut area.

Fragile situation: Notwithstanding the highly distracting political incidents and a cabinet reshuffle, PM Abhisit was able to address, with different degrees of success, those difficult-to-resolve domestic problems e.g. the Map Ta Phut environmental dispute, the corruption plagued Thai Khem Kaeng projects, the ineffective GT200 bomb detectors and airship, the forest land encroachment scandals, the 4-month delay in police chief appointment, the teething problems of Asean FTAs that became effective on 1/1/10, the negative report on Thailand by Human Rights Watch.

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February 5, 2010 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Politics, Property & Investment, The Vongthip Letters | 1 Comment 

Why Morals

Leaping into the morality debate ring, as someone recently wrote. Momma always told you to be nice and not to lie. There will be consequences, you were told. And indeed. You cheat, you get cheated. You betray. In a moment you’re the betrayed.

Morality, a key concept of Western thought, is a much more flexible thing over here in the East. Morals are more pragmatic, more Confucian, less rigid. What’s moral leadership for some here is a culture shock for others.

The more pleased I was to read a piece in The Nation titled Moral students projects rolls across 9 provinces; project that set aside a special quota for students with a record of volunteerism and strong morals to become “good students.”

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February 1, 2010 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, Culture Shock, Politics, Society, The Thai Mind | 5 Comments 

The Ten Commandments Of Thai Politicians

I rarely do this, but this “field manual” for Thai politicians written by Prophessor Stephen B. Young for The Nation is worth to be mirrored in full. You may remember The Nation’s telling interview back in September last year with the man. Young introduces his helpful rules for Thai politicians with this:

“Having tasted of politics both east and west, and having shared many a story over the last 49 years with Thais in and out of government and politics and from Isaan villages to royal residences, it seems to me the current unrest in Thailand could be overcome by application of the following guidelines for Thai politicians:” (…)

Take a deep breath. It’s an again telling list. Explicitly mentioning to “beware farangs bearing condescending advice” as if we’d still be stuck in colonial times. Or Thailand as a potential Leitkultur? The old man has definitely gone Thai. And who’s that “established moral elite”?! But Young only lists eight helpful rules. So what two rules are missing to make it a uniquely Thai Decalogue? Maybe “Thou shalt first and foremost dismiss thouself” …

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January 30, 2010 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, Culture Shock, History, Politics, Society | 8 Comments 

Welcome To Absurdistan

Apologies for joining this dark dowsing rod aka GT200 debate slightly too late, but fact is: the self-prepossession of our leadership-in-green is wasting human lives and even the Thai media are now stunned and in uproar, completely bewildered by the official line of argumentation, ridiculing their leaders. And the men in green and their civil representatives keep on lying despite utter humiliation in not only the eyes of the Thai public, but the world.

Kudos to Bangkok Pundit who already in November 2009 reported The GT200: Do we detect a scam? After much public pressure our dear army chief at least banned further purchases of the devices. It’s one of those rare occasions a Thai authority caves in to public pressure. Well, the honorable BBC spoke of “shocking (…) shortcomings” of the bomb detectors and even the propaganda-friendly Thai public didn’t believe those assurances from the top any longer that what’s actually considered a hoax in the rest of the world works in Thailand …

Well, you’d think there’s a limit to making a fool of oneself. The Thai leadership certainly crossed that limit umpteen times, blatantly ignoring scientific data and common sense by desperately trying to save their own faces. And they’re still not even apologetic with their head-in-sand policy. Well, even the usually excessively resilient Thai people have had it. Picture above is part of the aftermath of a bomb attack in Thailand in which the GT200 device used by the Thai police failed to detect any explosives. But that some leaders are trying to cover their own arse is not the real issue here.

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January 29, 2010 | Filed Under Culture Shock, News & Media, Politics, Society | 9 Comments 

Dr. Saul: Thailand & The Desire Economy

Dr. Saul Kruggerand, the renowned Ph.D. economist and native of South Africa, whom we last heard from in his article titled Thailand to Tackle World’s Desire Deficit in which he outlined the present economic structure of Thailand’s Desire Sector (DS) along with an insightful and detailed estimate of the Desire Sector’s current contribution to Thailand’s overall GNP. In today’s post Dr. Saul analyzes Thailand’s plan to target and develop Thailand’s Desire Economy Sector in order to re-stimulate & maximize Thailand’s GNP.

“Dr. Saul,” as he is affectionately called by his students, having focused his highly-tuned analytical skills on the present structure and dimensions of the Thailand’s Desire Sector, now follows with a detailed analysis of the radical and heretofore overlooked proposal the Thailand government made at the recent G-20 and Apec meetings to further develop the Desire Sector of the Thai economy in order to help reduce the World’s Desire Deficit (WDD) as well as to make a surprisingly significant contribution to the re-stimulation of overall economic growth in Southeast Asia and the world.

Dr. Saul is himself a Yesbel Laureate with his Ph.D. from the prestigious London School of Economics LSE. Dr. Saul has worked with or along with the World Bank, IMF, Goldman Sachs, the Dubai Sovereign Fund, AIG Hedge Fund Division and George Soros. A generous grant from the Chuwit Foundation in Bangkok where Dr. Saul is the director of research and senior fellow has helped to fund Dr. Saul’s recent studies in this area. And now, without further introduction, here is

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January 26, 2010 | Filed Under Being Farang, Business & Economics, Culture Shock, Nightlife & Entertainment, Survey / Poll, Travel & Tourism | 27 Comments 

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