Archive for the 'Politics' Category
Peaceful My Ass
The day started so lovely after a beautifully coolish night without fan nor air con, just cuddling in a thick blanket. And then this in Foreign Policy after the guy already managed to hijack the Huffington Post (understand it as a sign how far away their faraway editors are from here): “Opponents of Thaksin recently
Read more…
The Vongthip Letter Oct ’10
The Oct jinx: True to tradition, the last and the first month of government fiscal year have never been quiet and peaceful when key government officials, police and military generals reached their mandatory retirement and had to be replaced. This year, things have been more unstable than usual due to the discontent of those left
Read more…
Senatorial Role Models
Chapeau! Two Thai senators, Payap Tongchuen, 59, and Direk Tungfang, 64, recently replaced their velvet gloves with boxing gloves. A senator kicking at a senator, glorious. On September 13th, 2010, they kicked the crap out of each other at a temporary boxing ring in the compound of Bangkok’s parliament. Well, why temporary! The senatorial fight
Read more…
The Vongthip Letter Sep ’10
Reasons to celebrate: On 12/8/10, HM Queen Sirikit’s 78th birthday (also Thailand’s Mother’s Day), the people were in for a joyful celebration with their families over the long weekend. Local tourism managed to boost the number of tourists and hotel occupancies in most upcountry popular destinations, notwithstanding the heavy rainstorms and floods in some areas.
Read more…
Food Prices Soar
Thailand’s rising prices of sugar and egg – a political issue? Simple inflation? Dark market mechanisms or even speculators at work? Food giant CP must love it. You may not have noticed because for you the price increase is minimal or you don’t do your own shopping, but the issue has become so political that
Read more…
Useful Idiots
Well that title is stolen. I’m too dull to come up with something as creative. Stolen from a recent BBC Documentaries … But this seemingly internally inconsistent, loaded term attributed to Lenin does ring a bell, doesn’t it. We’re all some kind of useful idiots at some point in time. Well maybe not you. But
Read more…
The Vongthip Letter Aug ’10
Looking more like 46 now?! With the extra heavy cares and woes that he has been experiencing in the last 20 months, PM Abhisit has certainly matured before our eyes. In 7/10 he was given hell by the yellow shirts for failing to take drastic actions to claim back the land surrounding the Preah Vihear
Read more…
The Vongthip Letter July ’10
Mending the fences: Thanks to FIFA, Thai football fans put away their politically colored shirts to spend sleepless nights watching the World Cup matches in South Africa. News of favorite teams and players dominated most newspapers and TV screens. An avid football fan himself, PM Abhisit has, however, managed to accomplish most of what
Read more…
Al Jazeera: Slingshots & Firecrackers, That’s All They Had
Relive Black May with Al Jazeera’s “The Rageh Omaar Report: The Year of Living Dangerously.” As if the Thai government’s PR campaign fell on deaf ears you’re left wondering if the red shirts are no front. The last words belong to the opposition, it’s the government that’s in need of explanations. Add some somber music
Read more…
From Million Man To Billion Baht March
Do the math, and it doesn’t look good for either the government and the opposition with the red “class war” exposed as a “cash war.” Authorities claim Thaksin kin transferred the astronomical amount of some 15 billion baht to the red movement within a few days after April 28th, along with the real escalation of
Read more…