Chulalongkorn University Council yesterday announced it was revoking the PhD degree of Supachai Lorlowhakarn with immediate effect. The University President made this press announcement after the Council’s monthly meeting, and is receiving wide coverage in the Thai national press.
Can someone clear something up for me? Are the reconciliation bills referred to here the bills that the Constitutional Court made its ruling on? None of these have any relationship to Section 68 of the Constitution.
My impression, and I’d like to be corrected, is that the CC acted on a bill that proposes changes to the section that sets out how the constitution might be changed.
You are mixing up America and Thailand. In Thailand people have gotten out of poverty in the past 30 years. In America people have gotten in to poverty. This is mainly because the American people have been voting for a party that is favoring the rich. I have no idea why.
50 years ago 90% of Thais lived in poverty. Today it is about 10%. 20% of children died before their 6th birthday. Today it is no more than 1%. I could go on, but I guess you get my point. This transition period may be sad for some, but it surely was no better before.
Until the mid-70s, the fertility rate in Thailand was about 7 children per woman (the population of Thailand was 8 million 100 years ago). With so many young people entering the job market every year, the negotiation power to set wages will be in favor of employers. Hence the low wages.
On top of this Thailand also has migrant workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, who are putting further downward pressure on wages.
With a stabilizing population and neighboring countries with growing economies, Thais should be better off sooner rather than later!
You do accumulate and improve on the measurable and feel rich about it, yet you cannot possibly say the society as a whole is much better off like 40 millions uninsured Americans, or the bar girls.
Again why are there so much social upheaval every where as meausured by relative indexes of drug abouse and crime?
All very well have technology to help mankind but there msut be wise and conscious effort for social equality which is the forte of traditional millinwu old societies. Modern “advanced” societies are poor work in progress versions.
‘ According to the UNFCCC, industry and energy production account for approximately 75 percent of Thailand’s greenhouse gas emissions. But to date, only small-scale farmers have been charged with environmental damage, using the global warming formula. ‘
It’s all crap. The 1% vs the 99%. Map Tha Phut is going full bore, the Bangkok Post wouldn’t even publish the 10 point request of the local people to their elected government before their government threw it away.
The Thai ‘elite’ are hopelessly corrupt and enjoy crushing ordinary Thais while destroying Thailand themselves.
Now the elected government has collapsed.
The LRN had better watch out that its not slapped with lese majeste charges for criticizing the gangsters in the Royal Forestry Department as Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn has done against the NHRC for standing up for the human rights of people in Kaeng Krachan national park.
There may be more than three times the ‘forestland’ in Thailand in 2004 than in 1979, but I’ll bet there’s less forest. Moving borders by satellite in Bangkok is just an excuse to enrich insiders at the peoples’ and environment’s expense.
I don’t like making predictions, but I believe the economy will move forward without much change. Preparations have been underway for years, and I think that the ministries involved in economic policy will continue as before.
I like Niyom Worapanya’s article 3: “Any individual or groups who were affected by the coup d’état on 19 September 2006 up until the day this legislation is promulgated shall be given amnesty.” So that’s every Thai, then? I wonder if courts will hear many “I committed the crime because I was affected by the coup” in order to attain amnesty. A way for Thaksin to return!! Unity in Thailand won’t come with granting amnesty to everyone, it’s more likely to come after a galvanising shock.
Oh Art..Love it or hate it…
Good to have a wander through the gallery and listen to the comments. Our reactions to art reflect ourselves of course.
For those who find Coles work depressing there is always that picture of “The Green Lady” or “The Laughing Cavalier” to hang on your wall. Or 3 china ducks maybe?
Personally I like the neon colours. For those who want something lighter there is also the lady who paints with her bare chest on “Thailands Got Talent” though this appears to have elicited extremes of opinion also….
Some considerations spring to mind:
1) Chinese intelligence agencies are very active in SE Asia, the Pacific region and also very much in Australia
2) China currently has a monopoly on the refining of rare earth metals
3) Rare earth metals are used in new military technology – they are a strategic resource
3) It is in China’s best interest to stop Lynas
“One of the most obvious fallacies of modern Therav─Бda Buddhism is the depiction of the Buddha with a full head of hair. Living in Southeast Asia, asking the average Buddhist about this results in a range of answers, from a shrug and smile (admitting that it is incorrect but supposing that it is not worth worrying about) over to the opposite extreme of taking offense and demanding to know how anyone could dare to raise the question.”
Oh dear. Smacks of Westerner marching in and being horrified at supposed irrationality of local cultural truths. Why on earth should your ‘average Buddhist’ react any differently to an attitude which makes no attempt to understand why it is that they shrug, smile or feel annoyed at such assertions? What do you expect? A sudden wholesale willing rejection of a religious/cultural symbol that is deeply ingrained in a longstanding tradition? Missing the point slightly perhaps?
For all those whining about Coles’ gritty take on Phnom Penh at night, I suggest they drop by a Kinokuniya bookstore the next time they’re in Bangkok or Singapore (or Monument Books in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap) and feast their eyes on the racks of pretty photo books of a serene, harmonious and tranquil Orient, filled with picturesque smiling peasants tilling rice fields with their sturdy water buffaloes, uniformly robed Buddhist monks with matching umbrellas, lovely golden temples, humble, well-dressed and thoughtful elites, rulers, generals and kings, beautiful sunsets over the Mekong, and spotless beaches in Phuket without any vendors, beach chair and jet ski mafias or stray Rohingya boat people.
Not a single book of gritty photos of present day Phnom Penh in sight.
Oh dear, tut-tut, some say, Coles has included some photos of Phnom Penh bargirls, Expats and bars, dreadful and unpleasant cliches apparently in city where there are thousands of bars, nightclubs and massage places, with tens of thousands of bargirls, hostesses and massage ladys, ladyboys and rent boys providing service to a corresponding group tens of thousands of Khmer, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Expats. Not to speak of the substantial underage sex industry that still plagues Phnom Penh.
I would think even the driest and most academic researcher looking into the structure of modern Phnom Penh, its population, economy and culture, would need to include at least a few mentions of the booming Phnom Penh nightlife industry, its customers, workers, owners and those that provide the platform. Or otherwise risk irrelevance.
The borders of these areas, however, were created with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology rather than with the more accurate Geographic Information System (GIS) technology
Geodetic word salad.
“GPS” is a technology for measuring position: as such, it can be described by quantitative measures of precision and accuracy (which are not the same thing). Depending on the period when the measurements were made and whether they were made with civilian-, survey- or military-grade equipment, it might be accurate to anything from tens of metres to centimetres.
“GIS” is a generic term describing tools for managing and presenting geographical data. The accuracy of a GIS is just the accuracy of the data it happens to contain. Being recorded in a GIS doesn’t make the data any more accurate. So it’s incorrect to talk about the greater accuracy of GIS when you really mean the greater accuracy of whatever technology was used to generate the data it uses.
A fascinating and troubling story –one in a long tradition of blaming the victim of environmental degradation…. One note – GIS is not more accurate than GPS. GPS data is one of many types of data that can be used within a GIS database.
Pheu Thai then have a foot in all four camps. What does that say about the unity of their party? If they have party whips it must be an impossible task.
Nattawut’s draft stands alone in avoiding automatic amnesty for state authorities. However, if it as sloppily worded as this: “this article does not apply to terrorist acts or actions aimed to hurt the lives of others.” it will be easily shot down in flames.
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University rankings from Chula’s perspective
Wyn Ellis, Erika Fry: Congratulations, good job!
University rankings from Chula’s perspective
Chulalongkorn University Council yesterday announced it was revoking the PhD degree of Supachai Lorlowhakarn with immediate effect. The University President made this press announcement after the Council’s monthly meeting, and is receiving wide coverage in the Thai national press.
http://www.dailynews.co.th/education/120934
http://www.thairath.co.th/content/edu/270216
Given the background, it will be interested to see how the Bankok Post handles the story.
Thailand’s reconciliation proposals
Can someone clear something up for me? Are the reconciliation bills referred to here the bills that the Constitutional Court made its ruling on? None of these have any relationship to Section 68 of the Constitution.
My impression, and I’d like to be corrected, is that the CC acted on a bill that proposes changes to the section that sets out how the constitution might be changed.
University rankings from Chula’s perspective
Per usually reliable Bangkok Pundit (link below), Chula has finally revoked NIA Director Supachai Lorlowhakarn’s fraudulent Ph.D.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/84719/influential-people-criminal-defamation-and-a-foreign-reporter-nias-directors-ph-d-revoked/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BangkokPundit+%28Bangkok+Pundit%29
Leaving the farm
Ohn,
You are mixing up America and Thailand. In Thailand people have gotten out of poverty in the past 30 years. In America people have gotten in to poverty. This is mainly because the American people have been voting for a party that is favoring the rich. I have no idea why.
Leaving the farm
Allan GB,
50 years ago 90% of Thais lived in poverty. Today it is about 10%. 20% of children died before their 6th birthday. Today it is no more than 1%. I could go on, but I guess you get my point. This transition period may be sad for some, but it surely was no better before.
Until the mid-70s, the fertility rate in Thailand was about 7 children per woman (the population of Thailand was 8 million 100 years ago). With so many young people entering the job market every year, the negotiation power to set wages will be in favor of employers. Hence the low wages.
On top of this Thailand also has migrant workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, who are putting further downward pressure on wages.
With a stabilizing population and neighboring countries with growing economies, Thais should be better off sooner rather than later!
Leaving the farm
Chris,
The problem again is the unmeasurables.
You do accumulate and improve on the measurable and feel rich about it, yet you cannot possibly say the society as a whole is much better off like 40 millions uninsured Americans, or the bar girls.
Again why are there so much social upheaval every where as meausured by relative indexes of drug abouse and crime?
All very well have technology to help mankind but there msut be wise and conscious effort for social equality which is the forte of traditional millinwu old societies. Modern “advanced” societies are poor work in progress versions.
Blaming villagers for global warming
‘ According to the UNFCCC, industry and energy production account for approximately 75 percent of Thailand’s greenhouse gas emissions. But to date, only small-scale farmers have been charged with environmental damage, using the global warming formula. ‘
It’s all crap. The 1% vs the 99%. Map Tha Phut is going full bore, the Bangkok Post wouldn’t even publish the 10 point request of the local people to their elected government before their government threw it away.
The Thai ‘elite’ are hopelessly corrupt and enjoy crushing ordinary Thais while destroying Thailand themselves.
Now the elected government has collapsed.
The LRN had better watch out that its not slapped with lese majeste charges for criticizing the gangsters in the Royal Forestry Department as Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn has done against the NHRC for standing up for the human rights of people in Kaeng Krachan national park.
There may be more than three times the ‘forestland’ in Thailand in 2004 than in 1979, but I’ll bet there’s less forest. Moving borders by satellite in Bangkok is just an excuse to enrich insiders at the peoples’ and environment’s expense.
Thailand’s resilient economy
I don’t like making predictions, but I believe the economy will move forward without much change. Preparations have been underway for years, and I think that the ministries involved in economic policy will continue as before.
Thailand’s reconciliation proposals
I like Niyom Worapanya’s article 3: “Any individual or groups who were affected by the coup d’état on 19 September 2006 up until the day this legislation is promulgated shall be given amnesty.” So that’s every Thai, then? I wonder if courts will hear many “I committed the crime because I was affected by the coup” in order to attain amnesty. A way for Thaksin to return!! Unity in Thailand won’t come with granting amnesty to everyone, it’s more likely to come after a galvanising shock.
Noir nights in Phnom Penh
Oh Art..Love it or hate it…
Good to have a wander through the gallery and listen to the comments. Our reactions to art reflect ourselves of course.
For those who find Coles work depressing there is always that picture of “The Green Lady” or “The Laughing Cavalier” to hang on your wall. Or 3 china ducks maybe?
Personally I like the neon colours. For those who want something lighter there is also the lady who paints with her bare chest on “Thailands Got Talent” though this appears to have elicited extremes of opinion also….
Lynas Corporation for dummies (and Australians)
Some considerations spring to mind:
1) Chinese intelligence agencies are very active in SE Asia, the Pacific region and also very much in Australia
2) China currently has a monopoly on the refining of rare earth metals
3) Rare earth metals are used in new military technology – they are a strategic resource
3) It is in China’s best interest to stop Lynas
Draw your own conlusions
The Buddha was bald
“One of the most obvious fallacies of modern Therav─Бda Buddhism is the depiction of the Buddha with a full head of hair. Living in Southeast Asia, asking the average Buddhist about this results in a range of answers, from a shrug and smile (admitting that it is incorrect but supposing that it is not worth worrying about) over to the opposite extreme of taking offense and demanding to know how anyone could dare to raise the question.”
Oh dear. Smacks of Westerner marching in and being horrified at supposed irrationality of local cultural truths. Why on earth should your ‘average Buddhist’ react any differently to an attitude which makes no attempt to understand why it is that they shrug, smile or feel annoyed at such assertions? What do you expect? A sudden wholesale willing rejection of a religious/cultural symbol that is deeply ingrained in a longstanding tradition? Missing the point slightly perhaps?
Thailand’s reconciliation proposals
[…] Sinpeng links to an unofficial translation of the four versions of the important articles of the proposed reconciliation bills which are being […]
Blaming villagers for global warming
#1 R. N. England
I think the point is, they’re going about it the wrong way in solving it. If they’re even trying.
I’ve seen first hand of how stupid some of the poorer folks can be. Shoving trash down the sewer, Burning heaps of grass/trash on a whim.
Yet, you wouldn’t think that arresting them would do any good. Unless there’s an incentive, their habits won’t change.
Noir nights in Phnom Penh
For all those whining about Coles’ gritty take on Phnom Penh at night, I suggest they drop by a Kinokuniya bookstore the next time they’re in Bangkok or Singapore (or Monument Books in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap) and feast their eyes on the racks of pretty photo books of a serene, harmonious and tranquil Orient, filled with picturesque smiling peasants tilling rice fields with their sturdy water buffaloes, uniformly robed Buddhist monks with matching umbrellas, lovely golden temples, humble, well-dressed and thoughtful elites, rulers, generals and kings, beautiful sunsets over the Mekong, and spotless beaches in Phuket without any vendors, beach chair and jet ski mafias or stray Rohingya boat people.
Not a single book of gritty photos of present day Phnom Penh in sight.
Oh dear, tut-tut, some say, Coles has included some photos of Phnom Penh bargirls, Expats and bars, dreadful and unpleasant cliches apparently in city where there are thousands of bars, nightclubs and massage places, with tens of thousands of bargirls, hostesses and massage ladys, ladyboys and rent boys providing service to a corresponding group tens of thousands of Khmer, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Expats. Not to speak of the substantial underage sex industry that still plagues Phnom Penh.
I would think even the driest and most academic researcher looking into the structure of modern Phnom Penh, its population, economy and culture, would need to include at least a few mentions of the booming Phnom Penh nightlife industry, its customers, workers, owners and those that provide the platform. Or otherwise risk irrelevance.
Blaming villagers for global warming
Geodetic word salad.
“GPS” is a technology for measuring position: as such, it can be described by quantitative measures of precision and accuracy (which are not the same thing). Depending on the period when the measurements were made and whether they were made with civilian-, survey- or military-grade equipment, it might be accurate to anything from tens of metres to centimetres.
“GIS” is a generic term describing tools for managing and presenting geographical data. The accuracy of a GIS is just the accuracy of the data it happens to contain. Being recorded in a GIS doesn’t make the data any more accurate. So it’s incorrect to talk about the greater accuracy of GIS when you really mean the greater accuracy of whatever technology was used to generate the data it uses.
Blaming villagers for global warming
A fascinating and troubling story –one in a long tradition of blaming the victim of environmental degradation…. One note – GIS is not more accurate than GPS. GPS data is one of many types of data that can be used within a GIS database.
Blaming villagers for global warming
‘miserable hills of flesh lurch painfully along, victims of the successful advocacy of unsuitable food…’
….Now thats downright depressing.
RN England have you been hanging about with Chris Coles again?
Thailand’s reconciliation proposals
Pheu Thai then have a foot in all four camps. What does that say about the unity of their party? If they have party whips it must be an impossible task.
Nattawut’s draft stands alone in avoiding automatic amnesty for state authorities. However, if it as sloppily worded as this: “this article does not apply to terrorist acts or actions aimed to hurt the lives of others.” it will be easily shot down in flames.