Dr. Saul: Ratchada’s GNP Factor

It is our privilege to introduce columns by Dr. Saul Kruggerand, the renowned Ph.D. economist and native of South Africa, who will regularly share with us his wide research and hands-on experiences on Thai economic affairs.

In his introductory column “Dr. Saul,” as he is affectionately called by his students, will analyze Bangkok’s Ratchada district and the role its many large-scale “entertainment complexes” play in the overall Thai economy: “Ratchada’s Entertainment Complexes & Their Contribution to Thailand’s GNP.”

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, AIG Hedge Fund Division and George Soros. And now, without further introduction, here is Dr. Saul:

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March 30, 2009 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Dr. Saul, Nightlife & Entertainment, Seriously, Not ..., Travel & Tourism | 9 Comments

Tired Of The Big 3? Try SubZeroSiam

You’re a regular poster in one of Thailand’s farang forums? The options are growing. Now that even the Bangkok Post offers a forum and The Nation has teamed up with ThaiVisa it’s that easy for everyone to have a say. Add TeakDoor – my personal favorite – and Ajarn …

But how you will be heard and what responses you get depends on the forum. Wrote me a reader: “I’m sick of Ajarn and ThaiVisa being nothing more than advertising platforms for their admin. On neither site can you bitch about an advertiser and to me that’s just not cool.”

Well, there’s a new kid on the block: SubZeroSiam. A new and dynamic alternative to the “big three” ThaiVisa, TeakDoor and Ajarn, as owner Bob tells absolutely Bangkok.com. SubZeroSiam promises to be a new and radical approach to how forums are managed, we’re told.

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March 30, 2009 | Filed Under Being Farang, Society | 1 Comment

No Humor Please, We’re Thai

One of the great wonders in the kingdom of Thailand is when you meet a local who understands satire, irony, sarcasm, cynicism – common ways of expression in the West. Thai humor is quite different to the one you come from. But who’s to blame. Look at the state the country is in, when nothing real is really real anymore and nothing wrong really wrong.

In politics we’re governed by an undemocratically enthroned government claiming to have a democratic mandate. The runaway opposition leader claims to be the democratically elected leader while when in power he had abused that mandate by every trick in the book. What can be more satirical than these real life events.

Is it that most Thais have hardly any understanding of satire because their own world has become an own kind of satire? A world where fiction feels so real? You see a soap opera and must think “Hey, that’s like us!” Still, many honest dedicated Thai people keep on trying to build a better, transparent society where white is white and black is black. But:

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March 29, 2009 | Filed Under News & Media, Politics, Seriously, Not ... | 7 Comments

The Generals’ Democracy

Slowly but surely it’s getting uncomfortable again in Thailand. When the army’s shadowy Internal Security Operations Command Isoc has to explain villagers the nature of democracy it is as plain as the nose in your face that politicians do not really set a good example explaining what democracy is all about.

Good luck to us all if the righteous rightists see themselves predestined to “Create a Better Understanding of Democracy,” as Thailand Outlook TOC titled, the English-language web network of the yellow rightists’ core leader Sondhi Limthongkul. Born as the Communist Suppression Operations Command CSOC, Isoc has a colorful history.

Isoc gets a whopping one billion baht budget for the “political reorientation” of largely red areas. An official explainer to justify Isoc’s political role: “The budget is to be used to create a better understanding of democracy as well as to promote careers in line with the sufficiency economy philosophy,” TOC quotes Isoc spokesman Colonel Thanathip Sawangsaen.

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March 25, 2009 | Filed Under Politics, Society | 1 Comment

Golfer Prayad’s From Nowhere To Riches

I’m not a golfer. Got a single club, a no. 7, somewhere. What can you do with a single club. I’m a kiter. But even as a anti-golfer, Thailand has a great PGA event with a promising Thai twist coming up.

Hua Hin’s Black Mountain Golf Club from March 26th to 29th hosts the Black Mountain Masters 2009. Tiger Wood’s couldn’t make it, but they got Jesper Parnevik – and Prayad Marksaeng.

That’s right, the boy from Hua Hin from humble roots who recently caused a stir until that triple bogey on the final hole at Doral. Now all Thai eyes rest on Prayad who “grew up in poverty,” an AP story tells us.

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March 25, 2009 | Filed Under Sports & Fun, TTT - Top Thai Things | 2 Comments

Suthep, Our Yes-Man’s No-Man

They’re a couple, the two, there is no other word. When there’s good or not too bad news to tell you’ll hear the words from Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

If a guy for the tougher, more unpopular jobs is needed, you’ll most surely hear it from Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, a kind of Abhisit’s bouncer.

Thick-skinned and not the least fearful, Suthep’s the man for the dirtier work. Suthep’s the warner, the accuser, the intriguer – Abhisit’s most important shield.

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March 24, 2009 | Filed Under On Our Own, Politics | 2 Comments

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