http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/09/11/politics/Students-talk-tough-to-PM-over-deaths-30137761.html

I like it when students and the very young question authority … particularly authority they suspect to have been misused or abused.

What an eventful period this is! I am thankful that I have lived to see it; and I could almost say, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I have lived to see a diffusion of knowledge, which has undermined superstition and error – I have lived to see the rights of men better understood than ever; and nations panting for liberty, which seem to have lost the idea of it. I have lived to see 30 MILLIONS of people, indignant and resolute, spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with an irresistible voice; their king led in triumph, and an arbitrary monarch surrendering himself to his subjects.

After sharing in the benefits of one revolution, I have been spared to be witness to two other revolutions, both glorious. And now methinks I see the love for liberty catching and spreading, a general amendment beginning in human affairs; the dominion of kings changed for the dominion of laws, and the dominion of priests giving way to the dominion of reason and conscience.

Be encouraged, all ye friends of freedom, and writers in its defense! The times are auspicious. Your labours have not been in vain. Behold kingdoms, admonished by you, starting from sleep, breaking their fetters, and claiming justice from their oppressors! Behold, the light you have struck out, after setting America free, reflected to France, and there kindled into a blaze that lays despotism in ashes, and warms and illuminates EUROPE!

Tremble all ye oppressors of the world! Take warning all ye supporters of slavish governments … Call no more reformation, innovation. You cannot hold the world in darkness. Struggle no longer against increasing light and liberality. Restore to mankind their rights; and consent to the correction of abuses, before they and you are destroyed together.

From “A Discourse on the Love of Our Country” speech delivered November 4th, 1789, by the Protestant minister, Richard Price standing at the pulpit at the Meeting-House in the Old Jewry in London.

And the most serious business Thailand needs to attend to with urgency is national healing and reconciliation.

The one thing that could clear all the political foul air following Thailand’s Black May 2010, is THE ELECTION.

PM Abhisit should not dilly-dally delay the Thai election one day longer. Let’s have the Thai election by November or December of 2010 this year, as originally promised by PM Abhisit. No ifs and buts.

I hope and pary that things will get better cause I really love the Thai people.

Gary Fouse
Bangkok 1975-78

I do hope though you return to regular posting sooner than later as you have a strong Thailand voice.

Apologies for my unlucky phrasing. Didn’t turn against THE reds, but THESE reds. There has to be limited freedom to counter THESE reds. Under the pretext of freedom THESE nominal reds are freedom’s worst enemies.

Nah, don’t tell me THESE reds have outgrown Mr. T and are on their own. We all know that’s a cheap excuse.

BangkokDan

“The people of this blessed place are obviously not yet able to handle all the consequences that come with freedom.”

You patronizing, racist cunt.

Well … I’ve looked at your bovine lowings again:

“You think life in the West is freer? The people of this blessed place are obviously not yet able to handle all the consequences that come with freedom.”

So in the first sentence, it’s the same in “the West” – wherever that mythical place is – but in the second, it’s different; Thais are -and when you say “the people,” you’re obviously not talking about the pampered little lords of Thonglor – especially immature, at least compared to the lucky white guy. As a one-time inhabitant of – I presume – this fabled land, I apparently enjoyed no more freedom in England than do the inhabits of Thailand. This is despite – for example – not being subject to mediaeval laws governing what I could and couldn’t say about the value of having a monarch as head of state, nor ludicrous levels of government censorship, nor, again, extraordinary restrictions on freedom of assembly. The judicial system in England has tremendous flaws but it seems that I could have got away with shutting Heathrow for two months simply by professing my adoration for the queen yet tying a couple of red ribbons to a street sign in Oxford Circus would have landed me in jail. The shame. Had I but known. Oh, how different the recent political history of Britain could have been.

But then it’s not the same. I guess as a glorious white male middle-class Westerner – oh, how lucky we are, aren’t we, we who are the very pinnacle of existence – I’ve somehow attained the maturity to deal with my freedom, unlike the stupid natives who are, in the words of that bald buffoon Andrew Biggs, “under-educated and over drunk.” (As a side-note, you might like to read up on 19th century history and racial science if you want to get your apologetics for racist and classist oppression up to scratch). But I don’t understand. If it’s no freer in “the West” – and the answer you quite obviously expect from your ill-judged rhetorical question is that it’s not – and Thai proletarian and peasant untermenschen are too congenitally stupid and immature to do anything other than labor – physically or sexually – for their overlords – then presumably you believe that such freedoms as the untermenschen have ought to be further curtailed. What did you have in mind? Sterilization? Forced labor? Stripped pyjamas and an identifying mark? A ban on travel and restriction on their occupations? Perhaps designated areas for these degenerates to live in? It must be something along those lines since there’s already no equality before the law, no respect for human rights, no economic justice, and no basic democratic rights.

Of course, as anyone who doesn’t follow your nauseatingly self-serving “argument” – I’ll be generous – can see instantly, rights are far more fully entrenched – not totally but more fully – in European democracies. And the Thai people – the “uneducate” masses – are quite capable of handling their freedom. They’re fully able to elect governments, like TRT, which institute policies which benefit the electorate, which, after all, is exactly how democracies are supposed to work. The people in Thailand who are clearly incapable, however, of understanding this – and, as a consequence, are incapable of functioning within a democracy – are the elites, who see the faintest hint of a threat to their economic, social and political dominance as justification for the absolute revocation of democracy, either with a gun, or with the scales – snigger – of justice so, despite yourself, you’re almost right. What you should have said was “the rulers of this blessed place are obviously not yet able to handle all the responsibilities that come with power.” And, incidentally, as a neo-liberal capitalist and serial murderer, I would consign Thaksin to the lowest level of hell, so you can forget all that sub-ThaiVisa bullshit. Or, and in fact better, save your idiotic witterings for that playroom for the educationally subnormal – at least there they have the good grace to ban anyone whose IQ gets above single digits so there’s no possibility – as I’ve just done for the first and last time – of accidentally stumbling upon drek like this.

Dan – Have a nice break and good luck with the new project.