Thailand’s Totalitarian Democracy & The West

They do it again and again, the Western media and Western politicians. Ignoring all the shades between white and black. “Democracy in Asia? Beware of Thailand” is the title of an editorial published by the Italian daily La Stampa.

The author argues that “the explosive mix of street protests and veiled military threats holds the (Thai) government hostage - a risk for the spread of totalitarian regimes in the whole region.”

I’m not saying that elections in Thailand are simply bought and perverted. The very problem is that the “formally democratic process” meanwhile has a global appeal. Just vote - and the West calls it democracy.

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June 29, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Society | 3 Comments

Death In Thailand

“Death” is a very Thai topic. Thais love the morbid, bloody and the shocking - or don’t they? Thais’ odd fondness for a very own cult of a very own danse macabre is legendary. Just have a look at the frontpage of a local tabloid.

Thais have a more natural, more relaxed relation with death? Take a Thai funeral. Most turn out to be a community-event lasting for days. Compare this with a classic Western funeral where the all important work of mourning is more of a clinical procedure.

Call Thais more pragmatic. “Thais, compared to foreigners,” writes Thailand’s Lost Boy Matt in this post, “seem to be able to better face the realization that we will all, at some point, die.”

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June 28, 2008 | Filed Under Being Farang, Body & Mind, The Thai Mind | 1 Comment

Tidbits: Green Wi-Fi Haven Bangkok & Buy An Island In Thailand

For once Bangkok is not the taillight of the digital progress and environmental concerns. Under its “Green Bangkok” campaign the municipal administration gives away 500,000 free Wi-Fi cards for a network covering 400 square kilometers. Enjoy a blazing 64kbps pipe, slightly better than dial-up - and than wasting money at the gas pump.

Free access to True’s WiMax network shall help “create a knowledge-based society and (…) substitute for physical travel,” fancies Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin prophetically. The project shall save energy and runs for a year. Access cards are handed out at shopping malls and public places.

Some though explicitly avoid to be wired 24/7. They esteem traditional values, want their peace, listen to the singing birds and have, why not, an island for themselves. And some Thai islands indeed are up for sale.

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June 28, 2008 | Filed Under Gadgets & Shopping, Property & Investment, Tidbits, Travel & Tourism | 1 Comment

Contemporary Thai Dance

Some time ago I had the pleasure to attend an contemporary Tango dance in Bangkok. The dancers were all Thais. A most amazing feast for the senses. Who would deny that the slender Thai body - be it female or male - is made for this art of the alchemy of human motion.

Lithe, pliant and highly agile, those Thai bodies with their determined minds are extremely gifted dancers. However, they rarely receive any opportunities to develop their skills, particularly in modern dance and classic ballet. Most talented people lack the financing needed to fund enhancing activities and/or projects.

This is a huge problem for Thai dancers. A problem some people attempt to solve. One of them is Thai choreographer and dancer Jitti Chompee*, who has been trained in classical ballet and became a modern dancer who worked around the world with prestigious artistic directors and choreographers.

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June 27, 2008 | Filed Under Culture & Arts | 1 Comment

Thaksin Finally Caught Red-Handed In The Act

Pastrygate: The sentencing and imprisonment of three attorneys for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojamarn is one of the most telling events in Thailand’s modern political turmoil. For the first time, as I can recall, the man himself has been caught red-handed in the very act. Or you seriously fall for the conspiracy theory?

Not that Thaksin would have to waste a single minute of his precious freedom to appear before a judge. But three of his lawyers have to take responsibility for his style of brazen money politics. Even if the “pastry money” is unrelated to a Thaksin case, Thaksin can’t deny involvement because the three work(ed) directly for him.

Even worse for Thaksin - as bizarre the case remains: His new lawyers will not only think twice before carrying out dirty jobs for the paymaster. The case has tarnished Thaksin’s image and may shatter his dream of a political comeback.

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June 26, 2008 | Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment

Real Apocalypse Now, Burma-Style

Vietnam, 1969. Who didn’t admire Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now as mysterious Walter Kurtz, a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe. But take this: Kurtz was fiction. Over in Burma though, decades earlier, a true apocalyptic renegade U.S. soldier existed:

Herman Perry, an African-American soldier who rapidly lost his mind in the jungle, shot an unarmed white lieutenant and married a 14-year-old girl of a headhunter tribe. “Perry was, in may ways, the world’s first hippie,” tells us his biographer.

Perry had been dispatched to the Indo-Burmese jungle in 1943. He was one of thousands of men assigned to build the Ledo Road, a military highway stretching nearly 800 kilometers from North-East India to the Chinese border - what this Perry has to do with Bangkok and absolutely?

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June 24, 2008 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, History, Society | 4 Comments

!@%$#%@ Consumer Rights In Thailand

Wow. Am I pissed off. Just bought a brand new submersible water pump for the fish pond. Two weeks later the pump breaks down. The fish would quickly die without water and air circulation. Heading back to Carrefour, where I bought the pump, they smirk maliciously. Sorry, replacement only within seven days.

Forget all Thai virtues and traditions in such a moment. At any price, don’t smile. It would just give them the feeling of getting the upper hand. If you keep on being polite, you’re getting fucked - sorry to use that word, but it’s creator George Carlin just died and there is none more matching.

Boy was I boiling. Forget not raising your voice. You have to raise your voice, and rightly so and dramatically so. The customer service desk witnessed a targeted verbal attack. Around me faces all pale, but still smiling. Within minutes I got my brand new, rightful replacement pump.

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June 24, 2008 | Filed Under Gadgets & Shopping, On Our Own, The Thai Mind | 3 Comments

What’s Driving Chamlong?

You hear the man and know the man - but you don’t really hear him and you know him even less. What’s driving Chamlong Srimuang? Where does he come from? How can this man practically single-handedly keep a government in check? Remember Black May?

“Early that afternoon (…) military police, firing continuously in the air, moved in on the crowd surrounding Chamlong, forcing thousands to the ground. In full view of television cameras beaming the scene around the world, they handcuffed Chamlong and dragged him away. But the crowds did not disperse.”

More on this further down. Chamlong’s has remaind a fearless radical in his very own way; a - yes - guardian of what’s sacrosanct to countless many. It was furthermore Chamlong who was the main force behind driving Thailand’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) to Singapore. As a most devoted Buddhist he considered it an unforgivable sin that the kingdom would make if not billions with Thai Beverage.

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June 22, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Society, The Thai Mind | Leave a Comment

Tidbits: Good Son Miss Tiffany, Pricey Durian & Nana To Be Closed

First the bad news. It may soon snow in Bangkok. Asian Sweetheart has a short pithy take on our wannabe governor Khun Pluem. He doesn’t like working girls, “has fresh ideas” and “also a good idea of how Thailand is viewed by the rest of the world.” Blue-blooded governor Pluem’s priority would be to shut down embarrassing Cowboy, Nana and Patpong.

On a more constructive note the Wall Street Journal reports that the stinky, pricey delicacy durian has hit the $200 mark. Many poets have tried to pin down the odor of the smelliest and by now most expensive fruit. “Gasoline” and “blue cheese” are two tame metaphors people often use to describe that fruit that sends most foreigners fleing, writes the Journal.

“Garbage,” “stinky socks” and “manure” also are frequently invoked. Now if you just would have invested in a durian plantation. After the “white gold” rice Thailand enjoys the “smelly gold” durian. The price rise of the durian is even more astonishing as those “sulphurous … pineapples on steroids” are not even considered aphrodisiacs. Why else would you eat durian.

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June 21, 2008 | Filed Under Food & Wine, Nightlife, The Thai Mind, Tidbits | 3 Comments