<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar/14058325?origin\x3dhttp://croydonian.blogspot.com', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>

The priorities of the Thai government

Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Protecting the borders? Maintaining law and order? A strong Baht? Schools 'n' ospitals?

Nope.

"[Information and Communication Minister Ranongruk Suwanchawee] said in a press release posted on the ministry's website that the blocking of websites that disseminate content and photos which insult the monarchy is one of the government's crucial policies".

By all accounts, King Bhumibol Adulyadej is pretty good as crowned heads go, but even so. Given his rather protuberant ears, it is tempting to make a comment just to see if the censors pick it up.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

They do things differently in...

Monday, October 27, 2008
...Thailand.

"Hundreds of people, including youth, demonstrated outside Thailand's Stock Exchange of Thailand on Monday to protest plans by Beer Chang company to list its shares on the market".

The protesters would seem to be temperance fanatics rather than Liverpool fans: "Many of the protesters were antialcohol activists and members of Buddhist organisations. Some carried banners reading, ``Stop encouraging drinking, oppose the listing of Thai Bev on the SET.'' Others showed pictures of victims of drunken driving.".

I do not recall our home grown rechabites acting up when SAB listed in these parts.

Anyway, I don't know about my readers, but nothing gives me a thirst quite like a share listing.

Labels: , ,

posted by Croydonian

They do things differently in....Thailand

Thursday, November 15, 2007
Faced with the issue of electoral fraud, the leaders of some six Thai political parties - including what look to be the two main ones - "in the presence of Election Commission officials, took an oath at Bangkok's Temple of the Emerald Buddha not to commit electoral fraud...."EC officials also vowed before the Emerald Buddha that they would organise the election in a fair manner".

It looks as though virtue for its own sake is not enough, as "They read the vow that if they conformed to their oath, they would live a peaceful life, otherwise they would meet with downfall".

Perhaps our process would benefit from something similar, given that in March it was reported "Britain could be the first western democracy to face monitoring over vote-rigging and electoral fraud, Guardian Unlimited has learned.A European human rights watchdog is considering plans to scrutinise the UK's council and regional government elections this May following concerns over vote tampering and postal ballots". Source


Further digging makes it appear that Thailand has the world's dullest name for a political party - the Neutral Democratic Party. The Thai - 'Matchima' - sounds rather better.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

They do things differently in - Thailand

Wednesday, September 05, 2007
A rather curious survey appears in The Nation, covering the use of nicknames for children. Nothing particularly odd about nicknames per se, but nicknames in Trat province in Thailand appear to be bestowed upon children by their parents, and the big news in English language nicknames for Thai small people are, get this, Ice, Fluke and May. I'm not making this up.

Further, "The Trat Cultural Office surveyed 7,244 children from kindergarten to third-graders and found that 53 per cent of them had English nicknames and 44 per cent Thai nicknames. About 1 per cent each had Korean, Japanese, Chinese or Arabic nicknames".

Very, very rum indeed. If any readers East of Suez can add illumination to this sentence - The media played a crucial role in parents choosing to call their kids after famous actors, singers, tools and musical instruments - I would be much obliged. If Ice is anything to do with sundry American rappers using that as part of their stage names, then truly Thailand is doomed.

The tools bit puts me in mind of the tale in one of Freud's books concerning the patient lacking in vulgar vocabulary and would marshal invective thus - 'you plate', 'you table' etc.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

They do things differently in...

Thursday, July 19, 2007
Thailand.

"The Committee for Teachers and Education Personnel agreed in principle on Thursday to toughen penalties for teachers and education personnel who commit adultery or have an extramarital affair, [Education permanent secretary Jaruayporn Thoranin] said....If a disciplinary inquiry deemed a teacher guilty, punishment could vary from dismissal from the service - with or without pension - to the revoking of a teacher's vocational permit, she said....The spur for increased punishments stemmed from the fact that every time the committee met to discuss disciplinary measures, the issue of teachers' adulterous affairs was raised. Thus the committee felt tougher punishment was needed to stop such offences occurring".

I would that this was the leading problem in education in these parts, frankly. I am yet to discover whether the Thais are similarly harsh to other public sector workers in parallel circumstances, whether all the swingers in Bangkok want to hang out by the blackboard, or whether teachers are reckoned to have a particular obligation to be morally upright.

Labels:

posted by Croydonian

The things people get exercised about...

Thursday, May 03, 2007
In this case, a Thai protest outside the US Trade Representative's office in Bangkok because of a report accusing Thailand of intellectual property violations.

Admittedly it goes a little deeper than that, as it involves generic drugs, but the headline - 'Protesters protest outside US embassy against US report' - amused.

Labels:

posted by Croydonian

Just what Thailand needs - toothbrush star ratings

Sunday, April 22, 2007
Yes, really.

Apparently only four out of ten Thais pay much attention to the quality of the toothbrushes they buy. That high? I'm inclined to think that a brush is a brush is a brush, but should you find yourself in the Bankgkok equivalent of Boots or Walgreen, there should be an array of brushes with "consumer information on the package, such as the softness and sharpness of bristles". And it is a legal requirement too.

Perhaps some of my better travelled posters could inform me if Thai oral hygiene is especially poor or their toothbrushes particularly useless. But some how I doubt that either is the case, but meanwhile let us trust that this does not give Patricia 'very, very regular bowel movements' Hewitt ideas for ever greater levels of interference.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

The somewhat touchy King of Thailand

Thursday, March 29, 2007
Or, being charitable, his officials, as he has commented "Actually, I must also be criticised. I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then I know. Because if you say the king cannot be criticised, it means that the king is not human". (Source)

If Thai laws on 'offending the dignity of the sovereign' had applied in these parts in 1977, this


could have seen Jamie Reid cooling his heels in Pentonville until 2052. A Swiss man found guilty of the crime of offending etc faced upwards of 75 years for defacing portraits of His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej ('Strength of the Land, Incomparable Power'). The Thai authorities erred on the side of clemency and only sentenced him to 20 years, reduced to 10 because he confessed. (Source)

As a footnote Bhumibol would appear to be as yet the only crowned head to have been born in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Doubtless there are sundry Kennedys prepared to rectify that, given a quarter of a chance.

Labels:

posted by Croydonian