Morality VS Democracy: The crime scene, the morning after Thaksin gets a long-overdue lesson

Compassion Central: Funkypix2’s offer to poor Mr Thaksin should adequately compensate him for the Supreme Court's confiscation of "his" U$1.4 billion.

U$1,400,000,000, now returned to its rightful owner, the Thai people. That's enough to create 1,400 millionaires, and it won't fit on my calculator. Gosh, now he has to personally scrape by on a mere ONE billion $1,000,000,000 or so... how will he manage to pay the rent? ...hence FunkyPix2's heartfelt rescue package (first made way back in 2007).

Ironic. Now Mr Thaksin is grudgingly advising politicians to stay out of politics. Is he at last perhaps beginning to cotton on to the idea that being involved in politics DOES necessarily require a disengagement from personal gain? I don't think so. It underlines his persisting attitude that he was entitled to be the bonus-grabbing CEO of Thailand, not a fair-dealing even-handed prime minister. A statesman is supposed to help the State, not steal from it.

 

Unaccountably, these Redshirts are upset that their own stolen  money (1.4 billion baht) has now been legally returned to themselves. Perversely, they wanted the thief to keep the loot. Er, am I missing something here? Maybe they're worried about no longer getting their regular bribe to attend demonstrations? Truth is that Thai people are accustomed to admiring anyone who is street-savvy enough to get rich - by fair means OR foul. One Redshirt recently said in a newspaper that it didn't matter to her that Thaksin was corrupt ...because he is a charismatic leader. That's hardly what I'd call a principled position to assist a struggling democracy to find its feet. The relevant question Thai people need to ask each other right now is...

"What would Buddha do?"

 

Kuhn Thaksin swiftly pocketed 76 billion baht from the illegal sale of Shincorp to Singapore, then immediately snuk it out of Thailand and into tax-free havens in the British Virgin Islands. Pure piracy. Let’s get out the calculator and have some fun finding out precisely what that vast amount of cash might look like. For starters, laid in a flat stack of 1000-baht notes (Thailand's largest denomination note), it would create a tower 700 metres higher than Mt Everest.

The redshirts' underlying gripe isn't really about Thaksin's money, however. Like myself, most of them can't begin to imagine that amount of money. The real problem, the oft unspoken subtext, is about social inequity. There's a yawning chasm of wealth separating Thailand's wealthy middle-class urban elites from its rural poor, and I too feel compassion and sympathy about that. The situation in Thailand parallels the wealth gap in Srilanka between Singhalese and Tamils and other ethnically bilateral countries.

The current protests will probably not immediately prompt change, but in the long term may cause the urban middle-classes and Bangkok elites to become more consciously aware of their position of social advantage. Poorer people may begin to put upward pressure on wages so that countries like Japan are less inclined to exploit the present low wages of Thai workers. Workers may eventually unionize. And if education moved from rote-learning to a more "analytical-questioning" model, all Thais would be empowered to think critically and constructively in their evaluation of propaganda. In many such respects, Thailand is still back where the West was in the 1950s.

In the meantime, Thailand's Redshirts continue to simplistically believe that Thaksin Shinawatra is their Shining Robin Hood on a white horse, come to rescue them from poverty... even though his glib promises to relieve farmers' debts never even looked like materializing during his watch. The simple solution for Abhisit, the current PM, is to visibly direct much of Thaksin's confiscated money towards the Poor, especially in the Northern Isaan areas. And to do it ASAP, before riots ensue in Bangkok - again. The Redshirt leaders will hopefully realize that it is in the interests of the rural poor that Thaksin does not delay any such disbursement by appealing the the Supreme Court decision. If their "black-magic-curse" decision to splash blood around Bangkok is anything to go by, however, they aren't much in the business of Deep Thought. History proves that most Revolutionaries are merely Reactionaries in disguise.

Update 1 from the front-line: a video, taken as the Redshirts began converging on Bangkok, mid-March 2010. Each person gets identified and paid 2000 baht. Who was the very kind donor? This was about the time Mr Thaksin left Dubai and flew "secretly" into Siem Riep in Northern Cambodia, from whence he is now close enough to blow raspberries at Bangkok. Anything to stay in the public eye. 

Update 2: No, Update 1 was wrong. It was another planted rumour, no doubt another chess move on Thaksin's part, a deliberate strategy to continue his chronic attention-deficit "Jack-in-the-Box" media stunts of popping up randomly all over the world... rather like some weird global arcade game. No, he wasn't in Cambodia; he was spotted enjoying coffee and cake in Montenegro. Now I desperately need a candid photo and a speech-bubble that reads  Let Them Eat Rice. 

Update 3:  The Thai politics soap-opera gets funnier by the minute. Thaksin, in his shoot-from-the-lip knee-jerk manner, compared PM Abhisit to Hitler. In the very same breath, he accused the PM of being surrounded by homosexuals with emotional problems! (Hey, which decade are we in? I also trust that Thaksin's own son won't 't get too annoyed with his Dad over that minor slur). Next, Thaksin accused Abhisit of being mentally unstable - which instantly triggered a lawsuit from Abhisit, of course, who couldn't possibly have let that one go through to the keeper unchallenged. Soon afterwards, a report from Bangkok police confirming an assassination plot on the PM elicited conspicuous silence from the Thaksin camp. Meanwhile, the Redshirts have splashed 100 litres or so of their own blood around Abhisit's home in Bangkok. Besides being condemned by health authorities as unhealthy, even dangerous, (not to mention sheer waste) this prank is nothing more than a transparent attempt by superstitious farmers at histrionic headline-grabbing... faux "Black Magic".

Note that they stored their blood in ordinary plastic DRINKING bottles (eeew!!), then proceeded to tread in it themselves, thus contradicting their own admonition that the PM didn't respect the blood of Thai people (Thai culture dictates that putting your shoe on anything is disrespectful).  Redshirts, police and photographers alike were all spotted with blood. Small plastic bags of blood sailed gaily over the fence and spattered inside... like a grisly premonition of the forthcoming Songkran water-throwing festival (which is, ironically, supposed to be about respect for one's elders). In all, the Redshirt crusade has been a giant media flop, an embarrassing exercise in shooting themselves (and Thailand) in the foot. So glad we weren't there.

Just good friends. Dr Thaksin & Saddam Hun Sen.

Peaceful protests by Redshirts.

Most Redshirts are now dispersing from Bangkok.

Thailand is jealous of Burma's nuclear power: Let them eat Yellowcake

Disposing of nuclear waste? No problem, the monk-on-duty
with the 'glow-in-the-dark' orange jump-suit will take care of it.

A nuclear-powered Thailand? Yep, it's back in the news. But it's sure to be safe if the Reactor is built next to a Buddhist Temple or, even better still, near a 'good luck' Amulet factory.

I expect bamboo scaffolding during the building process. And a fleet of barefoot cops on scooters as a Tsunami-like warning system in the event of a nuclear accident.

I do really love Thailand - honest - but hardly because of Thais' rigorous attention to workplace standards. Thai expertise in matters electrical, for instance, is at best dubious. Most "electricians" have zero idea of how to ground [earth] a circuit, a safety standard universally assumed in the west. I think that before attempting to build a nuclear power station, Thailand might first consider working out how to build a half-decent footpath.

Good cop, bad cop, sharing a scooter. The officer driving should fine his passenger
200 baht for not wearing a helmet. Also note the excuse for a 'footpath' (outside a Wat).

Then there's the issue of corruption and kickbacks. Sub-standard concrete, thin or missing reinforcement [etc] is the norm here as the brother-in-law's suppliers pocket their tea-money. To save cost and make up for having to pay bribes, walls made of bricks only 2" wide are frequently built without any internal reinforcement [see pic at left]. This is the happy-go-lucky land of mai-bpen-rai, and even though foreign nuclear contractors themselves may be rigorous in their own internal quality control, would they be able deal with the deep rooted systemic graft and concealment that exists here at all levels? Even renovating our apartment revealed to us the cut-throat commissions demanded for contracts ...and all with the blessing of the condo management. Outcome? It was us who ended up paying - grrrr - up to 20% extra on occasion... to people who did none of the work!

Getting nuclear power is also about keeping up with the Jonses. Thailand doesn't want to be caught in a position where it might be seen to lose face in the event that its arch rival Burma announces its own Nuclear Reactor. Am I kidding? No, unfortunately. Burma has been promised a smallish reactor by Russia, and has also reputedly had contact with North Korean technologists. Burma has been told by ASEAN that it would be kicked out if it got nuclear power, but the Burmese generals, generously bankrolled as they are by China, really couldn't give a toss. In fact, it would conveniently reduce pressure on them to tow the line with all that pesky Democracy stuff. And with fugitive Thaksin now an employee of Cambodia, I'm expecting a competitive tender from Phnom Penh at any minute.

There is a protest movement against the nuclear push here, but it is routinely belittled by the Puuyai ('big guys'] who control the media. The immediate assumption is that these silly protesters are getting in the way of Thailand's progress. My immediate comment - moving forwards is not necessarily a good idea when you're standing on the edge of a cliff. But what intrigues me is the relative low media profile of the nuclear issue in the eyes of the Thai public. Truth is that few Thais read newspapers, and many are painfully slow at reading at all. Reading isn't big in Thailand - except maybe comics. And Thai radio tends to be populist and lightweight, especially up here in the rural north. For many folks, it is more important to score the next 20 baht for a meal than waste time on remote issues involving rich people:

But to put things in perspective, here's an interesting time-line which aligns the recurring nuclear issue with the history of coups in Thai politics:

Gotta love the tsunami image.

NEWSFLUSH !!  in Breaking Wind from the Nation Newspaper:
Dramatic Thai nuclear update (Dec 24 2009).

And, of course, the expected rush on Nuclear Merchandise starts TODAY!! All available from FunkyPix2. All environmentally fairly safe and posted discreetly to you gift-wrapped in a comforting shade of green:

 

 

Escaping Songkran water-wars: Hua Hin is a good refuge

Please excuse the blacked-out eyes in this post - I had a request

from a reader to dis-identify all non-consenting individuals.

Every year we feel the urge to escape the madness that is Songkran, Thailand's insane water-throwing festival. In Chiangmai it lasts for several days. In Huahin it is capped at one day. OK, Huahin wins, hands down.


There's a similar word in Thai ("Songkram") which means "war".


Usually we sneak off to a private island (Ko Talu) in the Gulf of Thailand south of Huahin, to go peacefully snorkelling for the day, but discovered that the island's owners have upped tourist numbers despite limited facilities, bought a double-decker ferry, etc, in order to make more $$. Well, at least we can say we saw it while it was still there....

So instead we went to a local boutique winery, in Hua Hin's hinterland, where we were greeted by live Thai music and dancing before having a smorgasbord Thai meal (well, 'Thai'). Your task is to spot Marie among the dancers
[clue: Thais are often short]:

Then we had a short demonstration bout of Thai Boxing ("Muay Thai") which morphed from a real fight into a comedy as the boxers 'accidentally' punched out the ref's lights then proceeded to pick-pocket him. In the photo below, one boxer goes through the ritual movements which precede every fight. Some large-ish Scandanavian tourists in the background provide unintended comic relief:

Development is going on apace in this region as increasingly wealthy Bangkok Thais seek a holiday destination that isn't infested by foreigners - as are Pattaya or Phuket. These photos of the beach at Huahin contrast the Old with the New:


Note the motorbike loaded with inner-tubes (for purposes of 'surfing') to the right of the fishing boat. Hua Hin used to be a fishing village - and still is - in some areas out-of-town:

As tourism encroaches, some see opportunities. This ex-fishing boat takes tourists on day cruises...

.....to Monkey Island, inhabited only by Macaque monkeys. Apparently their sole source of fresh water is from shellfish/crabs, which have evolved a means of extracting salt from seawater. Hm, maybe humans can learn from crabs.
Rats, humbled yet again...

Note two monkeys remaining on the beach. The rest have retired to sleep off the big meal of bananas provided by the tourist "cargo cult". We saw monkeys swimming in the sea - to cool off? to catch crabs? Later, another type of monkey was spotted having a quick dip after the smorgasbord seafood buffet on board.

These Scandinavian tourists caught the biggest fish of the day:

Speaking of monkeys, we did another day trip around Huahin and Cha-am, and dropped in on some distant rellies. Here's filmstar Hugh Grunt, looking a little testy 'cos he hadn't yet had his morning coffee:
...and monkeys are keen swimmers and spectacular divers, but are certainly none too fussy about the water quality around this giant lotus-flower Buddhist shrine:


Hua Hin's old railway station (below) was built for one of the kings in the Rama dynasty earlier this century (the current king is Rama the Tenth). The pavillion with the red roof was built specifically so he could change his clothes in private after the train-trip from Bangkok - about 3 hours. It hasn't been used again since that day, out of respect:

Likewise, he had a palace built about 5k north of Huahin so he could spend holidays by the beach. The joys of Absolute Monarchy. He once ordered all the furniture from his Bangkok palace to be taken to Huahin for the weekend. Here's the little walkway he had built so he wouldn't have to suffer in the sun as he strolled to the beach. Fancy staircase down to the sand too, of course:

Try this very short 360º movie to get an idea of the HUGE expanse of this palace:

It's all wood... teak, to be precise. The buildings occupy many many acres, and are unoccupied except for a security army. They were restored after a long period of dereliction, and the museum room actually shows a photo of the royal toilet, cracked by vandals and stained with age. Yet out of alleged respect, we weren't allowed to take a photo of the royal bedroom. A paradox, methinx.
Below is a pic of the royal performance hall, open to the beach and sea-breezes, where the King viewed theatre from the balcony and sometimes participated:

Inland from Hua hin there is a limestone mouintain, honeycombed with caves full of small insectivorious bats. At dusk, these six-inch bats suddenly begin streaming speedily out of a particular cave opening en masse like a long black ribbon rippling in the wind. There must be hundreds of thousands of them if we were able to see them in failing light at 500 metres distance:

Eagles were waiting to swoop. Awe-inspiring scene, as was some of the scenery around temples. This old frangipanni tree was pure Tolkein:
Apparently the word 'Frangipanni' sounds similar to something which must be very rude or distasteful to Thai people. They use a different name.
In the pic below, Marie looks a little odd after repeatedly donging her head against a temple bell. This type of bell is easier (and cheaper) to cast than the usual type, so financially-challenged Temples sometimes use them:

The bell was near this fishpond which is used purely as a fish refuge. Unwanted pet fish can live out their days and be fed by devout Buddhist folks (see mother & daughter leaning out of the sala). Buddhist Karmic Merit, which contributes to the quality of one's next reincarnation, can be gained by feeding or releasing animals in the wild. There are set prayers which people recite during the ritual. Nice.

At the Wat, this unusual figure of Phra Buddha invites speculation. Maybe inspired by 3 local monkeys? Ganesha?

The roof, doors, steering wheel and dashboard of this taxi (below) were smothered with Buddhist paraphenalia, amulets, statues, and the usual finger-smeared blessings by monks. This ensures that the car will never crash. At odds with all this was the menu of discount alcoholic drinks (top right):
After the Songkran piss-up and water-throwing day was over, we had a wonderful seafood meal in this restaurant in Huahin's main street, Petchakasem Road. Seafood in Huahin is super fresh, of course. Absolutely to dine for.

The Lady in Red may also be observed glaring at a post-Songkran concert staged by a Christian organization in Huahin. It was held near the statue of a young local hero, a Muay Thai boxing champion. But I suppose there's no contradiction... Christians are pugilistic and war-loving in the extreme. See this short video and be amazed at how much electricity is being used...


This Hua Hin post box ("COLLECTION EVERYDAYS") raised a giggle. Read the bit on the top:

...and some other things which tickled our funnybones:
* Sign above a tailor shop: Savile Row
* Name of a hotel: New Friend Hotel. It was located right next door to the Wong Kok massage service (in the touristy bar area of downtown Whore-Hin).
* Sign above a laundromat: Washy Mashy Laundromat, so-called because they don't have to wash by hand any more now that they have bought a brand new electric washy mashy.
* Report in the paper: ''The number of road deaths has already exceeded the hoped-for maximums set before the holiday began''. Maybe they'd manage to kill more people if there was a police-free weekend declared over Songkran. That could reduce Thailand's population even more successfully than the Thaksin-Samak War on Drugs. This year Thailand's Songkran long weekend resulted in 324 road deaths and 4484 injuries.
* Name of a doctor at a Huahin hospital: Dr Pornrat
* Traffic cop's flak jacket with a McDonald's ad on the back. Only in Thailand. Hey, why should I be surprised when the Huahin Central Police Station advertises its own liquor bar on its front gate sign.

...and finally, one of Marie's former friends (and renowned bus/Kombi aficionado) dropped by to visit us in Xiengmai, but never produced a single blockbuster during the time:

 Enormous piles of elephant dung have been appearing along the roads here in Chiangmai as mahouts bring young under-employed elephants from the country. They sell tourists bananas to feed their jumbos, which are led around Chiangmai's bar areas and restaurants by night. Each wears a flasing red tail-light - literally on its tail.
Marie's friend took advantage of the new Rent-a-Pachyderm service... here he is bringing the economy model back to our apartment:

A mini-bio of Samak, Thailand's new PM. You simply won't believe some of this.

...............................'Dog-mouth' Samak Sundaravej.
......... The-Thaksin-you-have-when-you're-not-having-a-Thaksin"

Thai people, uncannily resembling gullible American bible-belters, tend to fall for fairy-tales and superstition when it comes to electing leaders. Samak Sundaravej, using his populist-style TV cooking/chat show to propel himself into the public eye, promised to be a carbon-copy of ousted former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, the corrupt and shamed billionaire who illegally obtained multi billions of baht in the underhand manner of Suharto and Marcos.

One of Samak's party candidates actually appeared at a rally wearing a Thaksin mask! Samak, now that he is confirmed as PM, is back-pedalling furiously. He said yesterday: "No, I am myself. I'm the leader of the party. I run this country: it's me. I have my own thinking". Thai people, particularly the rural poor and politically powerful taxi-driver lobby(!), willingly swallowed Samak's pro-Thaksin spin in spite of his nasty personality:

"I don't like Samak's mouth. He's always chewing people out. But I like Thaksin," said taxi driver Prawut Panto, who like many cabbies in Bangkok comes from the rural heartland that supports Thaksin. "I voted for Samak because we know Thaksin is backing him."

Cultural genetics has kicked in - Thai people desperately wanted to believe in the tradition of the 'God-King', a long-standing stereotype in Thai-Khmer legend. That's why there has been a resurgence of nationalistic fervour in the mass adoption of yellow t-shirts representing Thailand's ageing King Bhumibol (pronounced 'Puu-mee-pon'). More than anything, that child-like dependence demonstrates that the public, desperate for reassurance about the future of Thailand, has been grasping at straws during Thaksin's years and even more during the 16 months of the post-coup Saryud government. Their 'Beloved King' is all they've got left in their psychological self-help armoury, apart from their treasured protective amulets.

Thailand's politics-weary public is cynically hoping that this new prime minister Samak would become their fabled Rescuer, carrying them away from poverty and the eternal enslavement of the daily grind.

(Incidentally, I note that many farmers, enthusiastically promised debt relief by Thaksin, are continuing to protest en masse outside Bangkok's Parliament House. Utterly deluded and sadly naive. They still believe that Thaksin was there to help them rather than himself. Otherwise, why would they vote for his avowed proxy, Samak? They don't even like the guy.)

..Farmers still petitioning for debt-relief outside Bangkok's Parliament House.

In Thailand, there's an even more blurred distinction between politics, legend and superstition than in the West, and opportunistic politicians are quick to tap into it:

.......A Thai-Chinese ghost. Yes, one lives in a Spirit House or tree near YOU.

............Hmm, the eyebrows look uncannily like John W. Howard.

In a culture where ghosts unquestionably exist and actively prey on unsuspecting victims, it is not at all surprising to observe the PM reverently placing a small ceramic elephant on a Spirit House for the benefit of media cameras. Symbolism (and bribery) moves Thais more than logic, actions or policies.

The 72 year-old Samak has a sharp tongue and short temper, and has been described as belligerent, aggressive, uncompromising, folksy, profane, confrontational. One of his most colorful recent remarks was to a female Thai reporter, who inquired about rumors of infighting within his party. "Did you have sinful sex last night?" he snapped back. His penchant for vulgarity has earned Samak the nickname "Dog Mouth" among critics.

He is widely accused of having fomented anti-communist sentiment in 1976 that prompted mobs to storm a Bangkok university, killing dozens of leftist student activists. The massacre came after Indochina had fallen under communist rule and Thailand was deeply polarized between right and left. Samak, who was deputy interior minister at the time, subscribed to a motto of the extreme right-wing, "It's no sin to kill communists."

He was linked to another bloodbath in 1992 now known as "Black May." Dozens were killed when the army fired on street protesters in Bangkok demanding the resignation of Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon, who had become prime minister in a coup the year before. Samak, then deputy prime minister, said the demonstrators were troublemakers who needed to be controlled. He has never expressed contrition for the killings, just like Thaksin has silently steered clear of responsibility for the 2500+ extra-judicial street killings during his terrifying murder spree euphemistically labelled as the "War on Drugs". More like "War on Political opponents". Hey, all politicians now know that wars on abstract nouns make fabulous smokescreens. Thanks, George.

Even longer ago, in the October '76 student uprising, Samak was strongly implicated by his encouragement of right-wing mobs in Bangkok, resulting in at least 41 deaths.

And Burma's junta generals are probably smiling over the appointments recently made in Samak's so-called "Ugly Duckling" Cabinet. Get this: Thailand's new Foreign Minister is no less than Thaksin's own former lawyer, Noppadon. PM Samak, himself still under investigation for corruption, awarded himself the Defence portfolio, presumably to short-circuit the likelihood of another coup. Somchai, Thaksin's brother-in-law is now Deputy PM...
Sigh. Only in Thailand...

... and a few more 'old-boys club' ministerial appointment atrocities:

* The new Interior Minister (Chalerm) made a fortune in gambling, which is (thankfully) illegal in Thailand, a Buddhist country. Chalerm was once charged with a gambling offence but never indicted. One of his sons killed a policeman in a bar-room brawl, but inexplicably got off.

* Sanan, one of Samak's deputies, was once banned from politics for 5 years for forging a loan document.

* Wives of three men similarly banned from politics have now been elevated to high positions even though they are totally inexperienced.

* Surapong, the new Finance Minister, is a doctor and close Thaksin friend, but has no experience of finance. His incompetence is already being questioned, even within his own party. (Gee whiz, if this is the case, then the competence of the PM himself must also be queried, as he was the one who nominated the cabinet).

* Sompong, Thaksin's boyhood classmate, is now the Justice minister.... and so forth...

................ (P.S. I'm not making this up... really).

---

OK, now I'll examine some things PM Samak has recently said and done:

1. He has weakly attempted to distance himself from the 41 murders of the October 1976 massacre, saying he had been an 'outsider' by then. Astonishingly, he went on to claim that there had been only one death, despite the glaring facts of history. Of the uprising, he said "Actually, it was a movement of some students. They didn't like the government".

Translation: 'The government was correct - those student activists deserved to die'. Samak's right wing beliefs convinced him, like President Nixon, that Asia was going to fall to the Communists, so his became a strategy of 'any means possible'.

2. Samak defends Thaksin’s 73 billion baht sale of the state-owned ShinCorp to Singapore's Temasek Corp. Samak: "Put it this way: corrupt or not corrupt, huh, in the olden days, when anyone invested in this country, you can hold only 25%, for the rest must be nominees, or any kind of thing. But he [Thaksin] decided to change that from 25% to 49%. Now when he made this change he could sell his shares, it costs 73 billion, and then he pay no tax because by law he doesn't have to pay tax. This is corrupt or not? Some say it's corrupt, but for me I say no, this is by law. This is he might take this opportunity. It must be his wisdom that he can do the trade".

Asked if prime ministers should be allowed to make money, Samak replied: "For me, for me, I have nothing of that kind. But for him, it's his business. He does business, and he wants to get rid of the shares he held. To be or not be right or wrong is up to him. I think it's right."

Translation: It's OK to abuse your influence as PM to change laws in order to gain personal financial advantage. Immorality is OK if you can get away with it. Who am I to dictate morality to others? But now that the laws have been changed, it opens the way for me to profit too. Yippee!

This isn't leadership. This isn't immorality. It's exploitation and amorality. So much for the Buddhist precept of Loving Kindness. I worry for Thailand. But i suppose the same could be said for America and the 10 Commandments...

It isn't unlike the complete absence of moral or ethical understanding demonstrated by a travel agent near us who is trying to cash in on foreigners' attraction to 'green' issues such as forest conservation, clean air, etc. A link on her website implying a green issues webpage takes you straight to her business page with further sub-links to 'green' pages. Never mind that the travel industry is inherently not at all green.
But I'm so not surprised, given the example of ethics set by Thailand's own leaders. Plus ca change...

More snapshots from Thailand

Electioneering, Thai style.

Politicians aligned with Thaksin wheel out an old 'revered monk' who (they claim) supports their party. Mm, I wonder who's holding the knife.

The interim prime minister, Saryud, helps out at a forestry event. Whoa, not in Australia: catapults are illegal there. Like many Thais, he sees fit to wear yellow to honour Thailand's King. The Royal Marketing Promotions have come up with a new auspicious colour lately - pink - so everyone's buying up pink because it symbolizes the King's recovery from illness. Then the King's sister died so everyone had to wear black for 100 days. Individuality counts less here.

The Royal Astrologers are important. They correctly predicted where to find auspcious yellow coral on the same day two years running. Lo and behold - it was discovered precisely where they said it would be.
Wax carving - a float in a procession. Astonishing craft traditions.

Each person adds an unopened lotus bud symbolizing future Enlightenment) in order to gain Karmic Merit for the next life.

Western AIDS activists and harm-reduction workers promote condom use in Bangkok. (Speaking of which, we'd love to see you Nicolette, if/when you get to Chiangmai/Bangkok/wherever.)

The noodle-boat lives on in 21st century Thailand, the boat image still permeating the culture.. This ageing specimen is prominent in the outdoor smorgasbord garden of a ritzy hotel near us. Noodle boats used to be the distribution system for food in times past when canals were the roads (Bangkok was known as 'Venice-of-the-East"). Now, if restaurant owners want to display their pedigree of long experience in the food industry, they do so by bragging with an ageing boat... way up on dry land. An anachronism indeed, when Thailand's highways no longer look like this:

I spoke too soon. As usual, all that is old is new again - flooding near Bangkok is becoming semi-permanent as Global Warming sets in. This road in Ayutthaya is inundated so often that raised wooden walkways have been built where pavements once were, and hey presto the noodle-vendor boat is back in business.

More pix of chronic flooding in the Bangkok river basin:

This flooded chili farmer would be amazed to check out this NASA-Google flood map of Thailand. You can deliberately inundate the whole country with up to 14 metres of water and watch which areas of the map go under. Zoom in on your favourite shopping street in Bangkok to see if it will still be dry after a rise of only 3 metres. I wrote this earlier article on Bangkok's prognosis.

Thais are oddly fond of Miss Jumbo contests. Heaviest wins.

There's always a festival. The monkey festival at Lopburi is a treat for local simians. This one licks a giant fruit icecream on a hot day. Below, they climb all over a man at this thousand-year old Khmer-style temple. Hey, better him than me - monkeys have fleas and can deliver a nasty bite is so inclined.

Meanwhile, the wildlife trade goes on. Eleven dead tigers and leopards, plus 300 rare pangolins were intercepted en route to Laos:

And the funeral pyre... Tiger, tiger, burning bright... [sorry, couldn't resist]

And speaking of conservation issues, try this rare Maekhong catfish, now on the highly endangered list. Tastes like chicken...

But having said that, there is a growing feeling for environmental issues in Thailand... at last. Here people protest about a proposal to build a smelter and deep water port at Bang Saphan. I can only agree - we often go snorkelling at a pristine reef on an island near Bang Saphan.