I really don’t understand why people making a big fuzz out of it…If he phone’s in they call him the instigator and when he ignores it, people say he’s dead….Just what the Hell these funny, illogical people wants is what I don’t understand…..Even the UDD stage leaders hardly talks about him but more to their fight.
There was also a strange press release of the “world thai student association”, an organization you can’t find any informations about on the web, except for this release. Was this organization just started to support the government?
Looking back to news reports related to the announcement by Dr. S. Korncharnvit of Chula that he and a group of doctors would refuse to treat police, one also finds that shortly afterwards the Chula Hospital executives came out to denounce Dr. Suthep’s initiative and Dr. Suthep himself also apologized for his “emotional” remarks and affirmed that in practice he never refused any treatment.
The Medical Council of Thailand also issued a statement urging all doctors to help patients without discrimination.
Anonymous 5#. “Remember that Thailand has a mean IQ of less than 88, and in some parts of the country it is less than 70. Kind of makes you wonder which parts of society are dragging the average down really – doesn’t it?”
Please would you provide the full reference to the study or studies which support this statement.
Surveys of intellectual level in countries like Thailand often use measures of general intellectual functioning which were developed and normed in western countries and are simply translated into another language. Many of these measures are composed of sub-tests which are highly culture specific, and the results can often simply reflect cultural differences in values, attitudes and education.
I would hope that your comment has some credible empirical substance rather than just being a statement of abuse.
If you do not post details of your empirical source(s), I’ll just assume it’s the latter.
I tied to post this soon after the original went up, but it didn’t get to NM.
Iwant to raise a point about proportionality. All of the video I have seen of clashes between red shirts and the military and police show the former armed to the teeth, including tanks, side arms, shotguns, automatic weapons and loads of rubber-coated steel bullets. On 10 April there were far more civilians killed and injured than military.
Al Jazeera breathlessly finds a person they say is a red shirt with a pistol. I don’t doubt that there are more armed red shirts. They face a huge and armed force that has an extensive track record of killing civilians (including during Thaksin’s time). Thailand is a heavily armed society. So why make a big deal over this and not ask serious questions about the dangerous and heavily armed authorities? The search for armed reds just takes all focus from the state’s responsibilities.
This is not a statement in support of violence, but one that questions this fetish for finding violent red shirts in a way that could be seen to absolve the state of responsibility for its violence.
So….. this is the voice from Heaven??
Come on, why did some one believe that the man is death is beyond me, and why some one want to stir that sort of rumor in the first place?? they have nothing better to do??
Oh by the way, “I’m totally Thai” UK never confiscated his money, you can check any non-thai news and you will not get a single news about that.
The CRES said it summoned the student leaders to inquire about the reasons the student leaders displayed a poster of “a dinosaur embezzles a diamond” in front of the United Nations building last year.
Could this be the turning point and politicise the students in Thailand? So far i have the impressions most of them don’t care too much and are a bit lethargic, i read interviews where they described the current events as “boring”, more in a sense of “annoying”. Of course that might not be true, but thats my impression of what you (don’t) see from them.
Thanks to AW for the link to Wayne Hay’s blog – which seems to give a balanced account of a] what he and his team actually saw and b] the unbalanced “draw the intended conclusions” use of it by the government and its supporters – joining just the selected dots to the exclusion of other evidence (e.g. the quickly blocked “Spring News” footage). As he rightly points out, “A clear explanation should have been forthcoming by now”; after all, the government and military had no hesitation in immediately “pinning” the Silom M79 attacks onto UDD.
These fast-moving and chaotic situations are inevitably almost impossible for one team to report accurately and reliably as they happen. One of Hay’s early on-air reports on 28 April spoke of both protesters and security forces “firing at each other” – no mention of such a significant-if-true point later and neither does he refer to it in this blog. In his first report from UDD’s invasion of the Parliament grounds, his commentary referred to “at least some of” the protesters being armed – while we were shown a clip of a protester holding up high an automatic pistol as he walked back to the crowd on the street. It later emerged that this was one of two weapons seized from a military driver (thought to be part of Suthep’s security detail) being displayed to the crowd and subsequent reports from Hay clarified this.
Given the propaganda use to which (particularly non-Thai) selected media reports are being put by this government and its supporters, one can only hope that foreign media organisations are reminding their correspondents to take extra care in what they say and how they say it – and to correct earlier observations if/when they are found to be inaccurate.
soon these students will be arrested and police will find bombs, grenades and most dangerous than all, criticism of His Majesty in their rooms.
pity those who live in this so special and unique thai-style democracy where the only legal political view is ‘long live the King’
Its odd isn;t it how the abusive yellow drones come buzzing around whenever the Abhisit government is unmasked as a totalitarian regime-in-waiting. Almost on cue, stifling any reasoned debate with their “shut your lovely shallow mouth up” and their “Hope all you romanticizing democraphites learn to recognize despots better and remember who is paying cash up front for all red activities”
After may years watching the drones in Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, and Thailand during the days of the yellow peril in 2008, it does seem that the louder the shouts, the less there is going on upstairs. Remember that Thailand has a mean IQ of less than 88, and in some parts of the country it is less than 70.
Kind of makes you wonder which parts of society are dragging the average down really – doesn’t it?
Sorry I would also like to point out an error.
The shooting took place at 9pm on the 29th April!
At least the shooting I witnessed!
I am on Standby there every 2nd day and so it was definitely Thursday the 29th at about 9pm in the Chula Hospital car park right?
OMG! I’m so happy to read this account of what happened since I was 5meters from the soldiers when they let fire in the car park!
I posted my story on ThaiVisa.com but was shot down in flames since other reporters were saying it was firecrackers NOT gun fire!
I agree at least 12 shots where fired at close range but I also believe the Red Shirts fired first with a pistol(I heard 1 small caliber shot before the 12 to 15 M16 rounds) and sling shots.
Thanks a lot for reporting this! I feel better now!:)
The poor soldier was clearly killed in a friendly fire incident more or less in front of our eyes by soldiers and police officers who simply panicked, which was the logical result of an operation that can only be described as a sad display of incompetence on all possible levels. The security forces also tried their best to stop us from taking photos of the soldier, which fortunately did not work as some very professional and experienced photographers were on the scene, such as James Nachtway and Paula Bronstein, and we worked together extremely well. Also straight away at the location some officers have tried to come up with some outrageous sniper theory.
Since several days i have tried to prepare an article on this incident, but always something came in between. I hope i can manage to finish it before at some other place all hell breaks lose again.
Sorry for having been so quiet lately, but i have to put all my efforts trying to be where things happen, and that doesn’t leave me much time for anything else. So far i think i did quite well, but i am horrified when i look at the mountain of material i have to work on when things calmed down a bit…
KimD C26. I have no problem with gossipy pieces although I think they should be labelled as an opinion piece and generally have a named author if possible although of course that is not always possible.
Im sure the anonymous author or authors has his/her/their opinion and great.
The piece also does not really explain also the Taharn Prahn involvement which assuming the pictures on the Khmer website of Insignia are correct would seem to be the most likely explanation of the black shirts on April 10. That would as many others have concluded strongly hint at not necessaril a split in the armed forces being the reason for the black shirts on April 10 but would hint at the involvement of a particular retired general using a semi-autonomous unit that answers more to him than the mainstream army in a way that has happened in the past if we are to believe a certain book. Now I am not going to say htis is the real answer but when consdiering what is happening surely it needs to be addresed especailly when international media and even Jane’s have commented on it. Which just brings me back to my point of a nice piece of gossip and interesting but one that does not even cover all of the ground needed to be even considered as news or analysis in the firts place. So opinion piecde by anonymous author using unsubstantiated material is where we are
MD for truth –
Would these be the “Doctors and med professionals prid(ing) themselves in being color blind” that you are talking about? (Stories from Oct. 2008, Google it yourself if you don’t believe it.)
Chulalongkorn Hospital refuses to treat injured police
(BangkokPost.com) – Doctors of eight hospitals released a statement condemning the police’s dispersal of People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporters, and called on the government to show responsibility of its action.
Chulalongkorn Hospital is the first medical institution that would not treat police officers injured from the incident.
“Today, medical team of Chulalongkorn Hospital will not give assistance to police officers injured from the clashes with PAD supporters. This is a social measure to show that doctors and nurses condemn the violent actions,” Dr Suthep Koncharnwit, doctors of the hospital said.
Doctors from seven other hospitals that jointly released the statement are doctors from Thammasat University, Khon Kaen University, Chiang Mai University, Ramathibodi Hospital, Siriraj Hospital, Srinakharinwirot University and Songkhla Nakharin University.
According to Dr Suthep, the measure will be adopted only at Chulalongkorn Hospital for now.
Chulalongkorn doctors boycott police
Doctors of the Chulalongkorn Hospital Wednesday refused to treat police injured during Tuesday’s clashes with protesters.
Doctor Suthep Kolcharnwit of the hospital’s medical school said the boycott of police was a measure to denounce police’s use of excessive violence against the protesters.
Suthep said Chulalongkorn doctors would seek cooperation from doctors of other hospitals to boycott police as well.
Truth Today –
You are talking about the PAD in 2008, right?
“If heaven means holding ordinary people hostage, paying thugs to put women and children in front of the line of fire, physically beating anyone who disagrees with you in the name of democracy.”
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Interview with Thaksin: “I am speaking to you from heaven”
I really don’t understand why people making a big fuzz out of it…If he phone’s in they call him the instigator and when he ignores it, people say he’s dead….Just what the Hell these funny, illogical people wants is what I don’t understand…..Even the UDD stage leaders hardly talks about him but more to their fight.
Thos clowns must be retarded on way or another.
Student leaders summoned
There was also a strange press release of the “world thai student association”, an organization you can’t find any informations about on the web, except for this release. Was this organization just started to support the government?
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-438405
Anyone knows something about this organization? It’s not mentioned on the wikipage of the Thai Student Association
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Student_Association
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
re: Superanonymous comment’s number 34.
Looking back to news reports related to the announcement by Dr. S. Korncharnvit of Chula that he and a group of doctors would refuse to treat police, one also finds that shortly afterwards the Chula Hospital executives came out to denounce Dr. Suthep’s initiative and Dr. Suthep himself also apologized for his “emotional” remarks and affirmed that in practice he never refused any treatment.
The Medical Council of Thailand also issued a statement urging all doctors to help patients without discrimination.
see:
http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=6711
Interview with Thaksin: “I am speaking to you from heaven”
Anonymous 5#. “Remember that Thailand has a mean IQ of less than 88, and in some parts of the country it is less than 70. Kind of makes you wonder which parts of society are dragging the average down really – doesn’t it?”
Please would you provide the full reference to the study or studies which support this statement.
Surveys of intellectual level in countries like Thailand often use measures of general intellectual functioning which were developed and normed in western countries and are simply translated into another language. Many of these measures are composed of sub-tests which are highly culture specific, and the results can often simply reflect cultural differences in values, attitudes and education.
I would hope that your comment has some credible empirical substance rather than just being a statement of abuse.
If you do not post details of your empirical source(s), I’ll just assume it’s the latter.
Street fighting in Bangkok
I tied to post this soon after the original went up, but it didn’t get to NM.
Iwant to raise a point about proportionality. All of the video I have seen of clashes between red shirts and the military and police show the former armed to the teeth, including tanks, side arms, shotguns, automatic weapons and loads of rubber-coated steel bullets. On 10 April there were far more civilians killed and injured than military.
Al Jazeera breathlessly finds a person they say is a red shirt with a pistol. I don’t doubt that there are more armed red shirts. They face a huge and armed force that has an extensive track record of killing civilians (including during Thaksin’s time). Thailand is a heavily armed society. So why make a big deal over this and not ask serious questions about the dangerous and heavily armed authorities? The search for armed reds just takes all focus from the state’s responsibilities.
This is not a statement in support of violence, but one that questions this fetish for finding violent red shirts in a way that could be seen to absolve the state of responsibility for its violence.
Interview with Thaksin: “I am speaking to you from heaven”
So….. this is the voice from Heaven??
Come on, why did some one believe that the man is death is beyond me, and why some one want to stir that sort of rumor in the first place?? they have nothing better to do??
Oh by the way, “I’m totally Thai” UK never confiscated his money, you can check any non-thai news and you will not get a single news about that.
Student leaders summoned
The CRES said it summoned the student leaders to inquire about the reasons the student leaders displayed a poster of “a dinosaur embezzles a diamond” in front of the United Nations building last year.
Student leaders summoned
Could this be the turning point and politicise the students in Thailand? So far i have the impressions most of them don’t care too much and are a bit lethargic, i read interviews where they described the current events as “boring”, more in a sense of “annoying”. Of course that might not be true, but thats my impression of what you (don’t) see from them.
Student leaders summoned
Here was the Facebook page of the “Event” at the 11th Infantry to support to the two students who were summoned to the CRES:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115444675157133
I pray for the safety and continued bravery of these two young students.
Street fighting in Bangkok
Thanks to AW for the link to Wayne Hay’s blog – which seems to give a balanced account of a] what he and his team actually saw and b] the unbalanced “draw the intended conclusions” use of it by the government and its supporters – joining just the selected dots to the exclusion of other evidence (e.g. the quickly blocked “Spring News” footage). As he rightly points out, “A clear explanation should have been forthcoming by now”; after all, the government and military had no hesitation in immediately “pinning” the Silom M79 attacks onto UDD.
These fast-moving and chaotic situations are inevitably almost impossible for one team to report accurately and reliably as they happen. One of Hay’s early on-air reports on 28 April spoke of both protesters and security forces “firing at each other” – no mention of such a significant-if-true point later and neither does he refer to it in this blog. In his first report from UDD’s invasion of the Parliament grounds, his commentary referred to “at least some of” the protesters being armed – while we were shown a clip of a protester holding up high an automatic pistol as he walked back to the crowd on the street. It later emerged that this was one of two weapons seized from a military driver (thought to be part of Suthep’s security detail) being displayed to the crowd and subsequent reports from Hay clarified this.
Given the propaganda use to which (particularly non-Thai) selected media reports are being put by this government and its supporters, one can only hope that foreign media organisations are reminding their correspondents to take extra care in what they say and how they say it – and to correct earlier observations if/when they are found to be inaccurate.
Student leaders summoned
soon these students will be arrested and police will find bombs, grenades and most dangerous than all, criticism of His Majesty in their rooms.
pity those who live in this so special and unique thai-style democracy where the only legal political view is ‘long live the King’
Nam Theun 2: what about the Xe Bang Fai?
Actually, this message was not initially sent to the World Bank, but was sent to the LaoFAB list-serve.
We should certainly keep our eyes on what happens along the Xe Bang Fai.
Interview with Thaksin: “I am speaking to you from heaven”
two English lessons for today:
1. What goes around, comes around.
2. Comeuppance.
Interview with Thaksin: “I am speaking to you from heaven”
Its odd isn;t it how the abusive yellow drones come buzzing around whenever the Abhisit government is unmasked as a totalitarian regime-in-waiting. Almost on cue, stifling any reasoned debate with their “shut your lovely shallow mouth up” and their “Hope all you romanticizing democraphites learn to recognize despots better and remember who is paying cash up front for all red activities”
After may years watching the drones in Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, and Thailand during the days of the yellow peril in 2008, it does seem that the louder the shouts, the less there is going on upstairs. Remember that Thailand has a mean IQ of less than 88, and in some parts of the country it is less than 70.
Kind of makes you wonder which parts of society are dragging the average down really – doesn’t it?
Keep shouting fellas, the world is watching you.
And laughing.
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
Sorry I would also like to point out an error.
The shooting took place at 9pm on the 29th April!
At least the shooting I witnessed!
I am on Standby there every 2nd day and so it was definitely Thursday the 29th at about 9pm in the Chula Hospital car park right?
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
OMG! I’m so happy to read this account of what happened since I was 5meters from the soldiers when they let fire in the car park!
I posted my story on ThaiVisa.com but was shot down in flames since other reporters were saying it was firecrackers NOT gun fire!
I agree at least 12 shots where fired at close range but I also believe the Red Shirts fired first with a pistol(I heard 1 small caliber shot before the 12 to 15 M16 rounds) and sling shots.
Thanks a lot for reporting this! I feel better now!:)
Marko:)
Street fighting in Bangkok
The poor soldier was clearly killed in a friendly fire incident more or less in front of our eyes by soldiers and police officers who simply panicked, which was the logical result of an operation that can only be described as a sad display of incompetence on all possible levels. The security forces also tried their best to stop us from taking photos of the soldier, which fortunately did not work as some very professional and experienced photographers were on the scene, such as James Nachtway and Paula Bronstein, and we worked together extremely well. Also straight away at the location some officers have tried to come up with some outrageous sniper theory.
Since several days i have tried to prepare an article on this incident, but always something came in between. I hope i can manage to finish it before at some other place all hell breaks lose again.
Sorry for having been so quiet lately, but i have to put all my efforts trying to be where things happen, and that doesn’t leave me much time for anything else. So far i think i did quite well, but i am horrified when i look at the mountain of material i have to work on when things calmed down a bit…
“The deep political crisis within the Royal Thai Army officer corps”
KimD C26. I have no problem with gossipy pieces although I think they should be labelled as an opinion piece and generally have a named author if possible although of course that is not always possible.
Im sure the anonymous author or authors has his/her/their opinion and great.
The piece also does not really explain also the Taharn Prahn involvement which assuming the pictures on the Khmer website of Insignia are correct would seem to be the most likely explanation of the black shirts on April 10. That would as many others have concluded strongly hint at not necessaril a split in the armed forces being the reason for the black shirts on April 10 but would hint at the involvement of a particular retired general using a semi-autonomous unit that answers more to him than the mainstream army in a way that has happened in the past if we are to believe a certain book. Now I am not going to say htis is the real answer but when consdiering what is happening surely it needs to be addresed especailly when international media and even Jane’s have commented on it. Which just brings me back to my point of a nice piece of gossip and interesting but one that does not even cover all of the ground needed to be even considered as news or analysis in the firts place. So opinion piecde by anonymous author using unsubstantiated material is where we are
Chulalongkorn Hospital – an alternative account
MD for truth –
Would these be the “Doctors and med professionals prid(ing) themselves in being color blind” that you are talking about? (Stories from Oct. 2008, Google it yourself if you don’t believe it.)
Chulalongkorn Hospital refuses to treat injured police
(BangkokPost.com) – Doctors of eight hospitals released a statement condemning the police’s dispersal of People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporters, and called on the government to show responsibility of its action.
Chulalongkorn Hospital is the first medical institution that would not treat police officers injured from the incident.
“Today, medical team of Chulalongkorn Hospital will not give assistance to police officers injured from the clashes with PAD supporters. This is a social measure to show that doctors and nurses condemn the violent actions,” Dr Suthep Koncharnwit, doctors of the hospital said.
Doctors from seven other hospitals that jointly released the statement are doctors from Thammasat University, Khon Kaen University, Chiang Mai University, Ramathibodi Hospital, Siriraj Hospital, Srinakharinwirot University and Songkhla Nakharin University.
According to Dr Suthep, the measure will be adopted only at Chulalongkorn Hospital for now.
Chulalongkorn doctors boycott police
Doctors of the Chulalongkorn Hospital Wednesday refused to treat police injured during Tuesday’s clashes with protesters.
Doctor Suthep Kolcharnwit of the hospital’s medical school said the boycott of police was a measure to denounce police’s use of excessive violence against the protesters.
Suthep said Chulalongkorn doctors would seek cooperation from doctors of other hospitals to boycott police as well.
The Nation
Interview with Thaksin: “I am speaking to you from heaven”
Truth Today –
You are talking about the PAD in 2008, right?
“If heaven means holding ordinary people hostage, paying thugs to put women and children in front of the line of fire, physically beating anyone who disagrees with you in the name of democracy.”