Archive for the 'Being Farang' Category
This, Dear Friends, Is Thailand
They thought no one on the outside world will ever hear those torrents of hatred, but then again, they’re actually no torrents of hatred but … utterances of devotion and pride. Affirmations of pure love and dedication till death. Judge for yourself. This is scary stuff not only for outsiders. Because this is real. Setting:
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Machiavelli Personality Test: Are We A Better Thai Politician?
Boring politics? Boring Thai politics? There is no such thing. Thailand politics by now have become a textbook for modern-day machinations and intrigue. Any dethroned leader anywhere in the world longing for a comeback should just have a look at Thailand. Thaksin’s the past you’d think. Emailed a reader: “In any other place on earth
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In Thailand It’s Real, Halloween
It’s one of those nights I try to avoid. Halloween. Why celebrate death and the macabre when the non-Halloween world got enough of death and the macabre already. What a nerd. Because the supernatural, ghosts, ghost hunters and such are very Thai and therefore real. That’s what we’re told by this TV report Destination Truth:
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Scientifically Proven: The Good Farang
She’s a fast worker. The results of Thammasat University’s Khun Nat’s survey – if Farang is an F-Word – are in already. If you haven’t read her outlining paper do so here. You’re a Westerner and hate to be called “farang”? But what, as we’re about to find out, if “a vast majority of the
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F-Farang
Farang an f-word? The first time you were in Thailand and kids called you “farang!” you were smiling. How sweet they are! After a while you wondered why every foreigner is a farang. Or do you call all Asians back home “Chinese”? Or even worse by the name of a fruit? Today I couldn’t care
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Phra Bill
It’s one of those strong Thai rituals to send the sons to the temple to become monks and if it’s only for a few weeks, being taught humility and renunciation. Even for an atheist and nihilist monks can be today’s true heros. Each morning, when driving my son to school, I meet this barefoot monk
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Thailand Crashing? Poll
You have this nice and this ugly face of Thailand. You do not only have the first Thai head of government in living memory who’s presentable and speaks some proper English. You also have events pushing Thailand back to the Dark Ages and the high-profile fugitive who laughs of Thailand’s justice system as a joke.
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The Bank: Nightclub Unplugged
I was shocked. Utterly shocked. Doesn’t happen often that I’m shocked. But there I was. Speechless. Must have had my mouth open all the time, struggling to keep the head straight. It actually was soon too much for me. Slightly dizzy, without a single drink, and I had to leave. A few minutes later, walking
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Harem Culture & Colonialism’s Dirty Little Secrets
It’s hard to agree on something in current Thailand. But there is one topic without controversy. Sex. With the words “something we can all agree on, sex,” he was recently introduced at the FCCT: Richard Bernstein, a former New York Times book critic and TIME correspondent in Hong Kong and Beijing. And author of The
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Thailand Beyond The Fringe
How far would you go to become Thai? We recently had a bitter-sweet take on those wannabe-Thais who become more Catholic than the Pope. Here’s a more scientific approach. Should we dare to stop being ourselves? Author Tim Rackett, a resident lecturer at Khon Kaen University, reviews Robert Cooper’s “Thailand Beyond the Fringe,” a book
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