On another note, I appreciate Chdarat’s trenchant insights as to young media star cloning here.

And yes, the radio stations here suck donkey di*ks! (Sorry to be so graphic, but the issue really irks me to no end.)

Godwin’s rule applies.

My goodness, I do appear to have rattled some cages, but yours is a pernicous and dishonest post. I have never refused to see a difference between education and IQ, though all but the worst kind of dullard would recognize the link (dependence) between the two things.

As to the other point, conjecture dressed up as fact. Where has it been proven my friend?

All from me on this one …

(BD: Again, appreciate your energy Rich, let’s just not wander off into dogmatism. Enough to and fro.)

Well, it does rather seem that you are determined to find offence where none exists so I will leave you to it to enjoy odor of your own imagined sanctity.

As for the petty jibe of racism, allow me to inform you what nobody seems to have done already, and that is that we are all racist. You, me, everyone. Its a part of the human condition. Were it not so, there would be no need of laws to prevent its overt application.

Some people have open minds, others are like pebbles in a stream, water all around yet none penetrates. If you absorb just a little, you will be able to express opinion, which requires a developed cortex, and not just behavioral response, which almost any mammal can do.

Still, it’s a lovely day out there, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and there are no clods anywhere to be seen. Of course, I’m not in Thailand as we speak …

(BD: OK guys let’s move on, read Khi Kwai …)

“(…) black persuasion (…)?”

Says it all.

I’m not a proponent of PC by a long shot. It’s akin to censorship in my book yet worse. That said, where racism is apparent it is easily recognizable. As are a sense of entitlement and elitism.

Hopefully you’ll engage a head hunter that can find a capable manager willing to work for you.

“(…) then radio and TV will only ever be used as a soporific to amuse those who are “too stupid to have a vote” while the elites get on with the business of bleeding them dry (…)”

Sounds just like any “news” outlet worldwide especially those owned by Rupert Murdoch. Fox News being the worst offender.

I tell you any way (isn’t that just typical Thai hey).

The birth of Thai media like other Western media was for the use of full-time propaganda. Sadly all parties that initiated and owned Thai media empires are very successful at what they do – keeping the people away from the real world.

Take a look at the people walking the street you can see that they are more interested in aping Thai superstars, Japanese superstars and Hollywood superstars in looks than discussing Thai renaissance art culture.

So you have generations of young media stars that are cloned Stepford Wives. They will behave like other Western media but are very two dimensional because they are not encouraged to have views other than the superficial materials views.

Even the yellow and red stations trailed off from sensibility and sank into tyrannical rants.

Thais love to follow the and originality and individuality are frowned upon as not wanting to fit into order.

Yes Thailand has all the right props – infrastructure going to make it race up from the third world to the first.

We even send our children to get first class education and they return to be a cardboard cut-out version of themselves.

We even have Princeton educated reality TV stars for god’s sake.

Happy time!

One by one I suppose is the best way:

@BD

“Brave New World if IQs and stats are the be-all and end-all.

Luckily there’s so much more to Thailand and the Thai people that meets the eye.

I’m not saying, I’m just saying.”

Sure you are, and you are (like me) entitled to an opinion and a perception of facts. The fact is that Thais are relatively unintelligent as evidenced by the IQ tables. While there is no measure of EI, I am satisfied that Thais rank pretty badly on that too. I agree that this is not all, but it is part.

I also agree that Thailand is more than just IQ, same as every other community in the world, but to use that as an argument to ignore the correctness of what I said is fatuous.

@whoopla

“Rich, may I suggest your use of the word “unintelligent” is out of place in the context you mean;”

But really what you are saying is you find the connotation of the word unacceptable. Unacceptable to you it may be but the denotation is correct in this context. You seek to argue against facts by then introducing subjective and non-empirical content about you knowing some Thais who are intelligent. Well, so do I, but none of that makes the average IQ in Thailand any higher.

To quote BD – I’m not saying, I’m just saying. If we don’t like the facts lets say so, lets not try and smother and obscure them within equally unintelligent political correctness.

@bosunj

“It appears that one comment has embraced “The Bell Curve” (…)”

As it happens I was in UK when the Bell Curve was published, and witnessed at first hand the PC hysteria that ensued – typically from those of a black persuasion or who relied on those of a black persuasion for their elected office. Critically however, nobody was able to fault the methodology or the results, and as I recall, it was published by a reputable U.S. University publishing house.

Typical of the hysterical reaction was the execrable Paul Boateng who basically said that he didn’t care if the results were correct or not, he was only concerned that they shouldn’t be correct, and if they were, they shouldn’t be published. Typical but unhelpful and itself not very smart.

As people we react emotionally to stuff that conflicts with our value system. If we can teach our relatively unintelligent Thai brothers and sisters how not to do this (which they also are rather prone to), then we will be doing them a great service. But first we have to learn not to do it ourselves – don’t we?

And if we succeed in that then we will help them to be smarter people and better managers with a shot at getting out of the developing world some day.

Call me elitist if you will, but I am smart enough to see through the PC smoke and mirrors, and not react emotionally when confronted with facts that I wish were not facts.

The bottom line is this guys:

Thailand is either a 3rd world nation because it is full of smart and very savvy people with good social mores or it isn’t.

Thailand is either on the brink of failed nation status because it is good at managing itself or it isn’t.

It really isn’t that complicated but to get a clear view, some of the PC pugwash needs to be cleared away. What the esteemed former ambassador said was right. Thais are relatively unintelligent and their culture is second hand. To which I would add that their values are skewed towards self-aggrandizement than actual achievement, and this is yet another cultural burden they must learn to shrug off if they are ever going to be perceived as adults in the big world out there.

Until they stop all that nonsense they will not progress as a people. And back to the original point; radio and TV are valuable educational tools, but in a country where education is only given to those with money or the right surname (and that is rarely a Thai education but a subsidized education provided for and largely paid for by the hated Johnny Foreigner), then radio and TV will only ever be used as a soporific to amuse those who are “too stupid to have a vote” while the elites get on with the business of bleeding them dry.

*cough*

Now, where’s that umbrella and my bullshit deflector?