You may recall from the first volume of Funky Pix (Vol.1, page 50) the photo of Thailand’s rapacious Prime Minister Thaksin rushing off to Burma to secure a dodgy gas deal for Thailand …then secretly awarding the supply contract to one of his own companies.
Well, big business isn’t the only reason he goes to Burma. While he’s there, he sometimes has a visitation by ET.
E-Thi is a disabled Burmese woman, an astrologer upon whose advice Thaksin bases many of his decisions. E-Thi’s speech impediment makes her suggestions incomprehensible, but her sister conveniently translates the blurry prognostications. (Hmm, reminds me of the Oracle at Delphi in ancient Greece…) Apparently, E-Thi once correctly mentioned a sequence of numbers on a banknote in his pocket, and ever since then she’s been a celeb. She gets whisked to Bangkok periodically (in a government plane, no doubt) to assist Thaksin in making political decisions. It’s an open secret that Thaksin relies heavily on astrology from Burma, as well as Black Magic from exponents in Cambodia. E-Thi is also sought after by the First Couple of Burma’s ruling military Junta – Senior General Than Shwe and his wife Kyaing Kyaing - according to the latest issue of The Irrawaddy.
In the nineties, Thai military generals made a secret trip to Rangoon to consult an astrologer, making a large donation to a temple as part of the deal. They were instructed not to touch the earth on their way back to Bangkok… so they carefully walked on red carpets, took aircraft and were driven in a convoy of government limosines, windows blacked out as usual.
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