Absolutely a wonderful interview. Pity that I just find and read it today. Interesting experiences and researches from Prof. Sturgeon. Ah, Try harder and apply for her programmes in SFU~
I saw a copy of the “titillating” video, as have many of my Thai colleagues. Most did not look at it for long or very carefully. One who did claimed that there was a clear splice line at the neck, indicating that the event did not happen as portrayed, and that the video must be a smear job. This friend, who is far from a defender of the prince, must have had a better quality copy than I had, because I could not detect the same evidence of video tampering.
Countless Burmese boys were dying of heroin overdoses well before young Australian men and women started dying in the lane ways of the Cross in Sydney.
Like opium as a legacy of British Empire, heroin is the long lasting legacy of America’s Vietnam War. CIA, with the help of White Chinese KMT remnants on the Burma-Thai border, introduced the large scale production of heroin to supply the drugs to their GIs in Vietnam.
The returning GIs brought back their heroin habits home and an enormous market was created on the streets of every countries of the developed world. A large scale industry was born and Burma as a failed-state is just satisfying that insatiable global demand.
At the beginning only the ethnic rebels were involved in the heroin industry. But gradually individual army units started benefiting from the heroin trade as my old company did by allowing the traffickers to use our train carriage.
Eventually the rouge and powerful elements of Burmese army started cooperating with the drug lords like Khun Sa and Lau Sit Han as the economic sanctions and international isolation has forced Burmese generals into a tight corner where the heroin trade is the only way to arm the large army and fight the long civil war.
Pepsi and Unocal and other large foreign businesses were forced to withdraw from Burma and the textile export industry was snuffed out in its infancy so Burmese were forced to flood USA and others with her only viable commodity left, the heroin.
The heroin scourge will continue unless the international community does the about turn and reengage with Burma.
I agree George. Fortunately, the editorial bias and pro-Thaksin hidden agenda here is both pretty obvious and widely known.
Moreover, Thaksin’s abject failure to provide well-reasoned responses to criticism and to instead rely on non-stop blatant propaganda is unworthy of Thaksin – or anyone else – that puts a Ph.D. or any other university graduate title before their name.
Chris Beale. I agree there is discrimination against foreigners (not just farang) if they are direct investors who need to own land and/or own controlling stakes in their business. However, at the level of portfolio investors on the SET who only want fractional stakes there is not really much significant discrimination that affects how they trade or the returns they can make. Even the foreign ownership limit problems have been radically improved by NVDRs (non-voting depositary receipts). These have reduced the demand for foreign registered stock and brought foreign premiums down to reasonable levels for those (mainly pension managers who are legally required to excerise proxy votes). However, it does require time and patience to learn the Thai market and watch for opportunities which is difficult if you are working full time in another field.
There should be this scene as there’re a lot of people from northern thailand and north eastern thailand who works in Bangkok.
The press in Thailand are so many, please visit ASTV manager http://www.tannetwork.tv/tan/ , and you will know a lot more on this red team.
Actually, they are not protest in peace, but, they had a team to fire the bomb, shot the police & soldiers, unseen from anyone. They also asked the stupid people to donate the blood to pure to the parliament and the PM’s private house. Do you think this is DEMOCRACY & pretest in peace? I don’t think so.
I was curious about Thaksin’s latest phone in comments to the effect that Abhisit was bribing protestors to leave Bangkok, has a mental disorder akin to Adolf Hitler and is surrounded by homosexuals. Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black on all counts? Is this really the man who is going to lead Thailand to a new social order based on equality and rule of law without double standards. As you point out, it is never going to work, unless it can also appeal to the educated middle classes. Perhaps, if you middle class closet reds were brave enough to get out of the cupboard you could get together and find some a more credible leader. Since you acknowledge that it is going to take at least a generation, there is no reason to make do with such a deeply flawed character as a stop gap. Dump that guy and take the time to come up with some real ideology that will appeal to the middle class you know so well in addition to the rural poor and a establish a real leadership structre based on merit, not just one man based on his money.
Actually I thought the Crown Prince came off rather well in the Economist article. An eccentric Royal with a sense of humour (along the lines of Prince Charles) would be a breath of fresh air in Thailand. European Royal Families are no longer pompous and excessively formal.
silenced: should be easy to guess the name of at least one foreigner amongst them, since many in this forum were taking a dump on him a month or so back 🙂
This is a good set of events that you presented here and i enjoyed reading it. The death of that boy in the start of your story and that of Jason had few common threads including both bad boys (kind of), both died in isolation and of course heroin. No matter what color of this powder may be, it brings death and destruction of oneself and associated families.
Burma is consider to be producer of approx. 70% of heroin consumed anywhere in this world and Burmese Junta is known to support this production.
I believe your ecperience from past as a soldier and as a student from repressed Burma could be explosive and an interesting read.
A few years ago at a Cambridge Society of Thailand black tie banquet, the guest of honor was none other than the Crown Prince. The alum stood quietly in rows on the left and right sides of the entrance to the banquet hall, and as the door opened, who else but Captain Foo Foo walked in, graceful and dignified…
Good thing the Captain didn’t decide to take a crap.
I appreciate all comments here. Thank you very much.
But as chris beale has generalized for me this generation to be “born after ‘76 but brainwashed before May’92”, from my observation and assessment, this is not quite accurate.
I think the socio-economic group/generation I have in mind (which I also belong to as well) are those born from the 60s until maybe 90s. I think as long as you were young enough (i.e. still in primary/secondary school) when Prem just became a PM in 1980, then, you must have had been feeded with his propagandizing machine early enough and long enough.
I’m not too sure about younger generation (those born after from the 90s onwards) but I’m hopeful that most of them can see through all the propaganda (which were drummed up significantly again in the past several years) and view them irrelevant to their modern lives.
Also, in the 70s, I think the middle-class, let alone upper-middle-clase, were non-existence. So this class struggle things become mroe relevant to these class quite recently.
I only hope that, as one of you pointed out, the modern communication technology will make a difference this time. My fear is not that the middle class will not become a part of a force for progress but simply rather that they not becoming an obstacle to it.
Just a small update on the comments here. Stumbling around the websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I noticed that Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana is no longer with the Royal Thai Embassy in Rome. She has now been transferred to the Embassy in Paris, but retains her Third Secretary status.
Readers interested in a full list of Thailand’s overseas missions will find one here.
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Interview with Professor Janet Sturgeon
Absolutely a wonderful interview. Pity that I just find and read it today. Interesting experiences and researches from Prof. Sturgeon. Ah, Try harder and apply for her programmes in SFU~
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
A hard hitting piece… that will not hit the press in Thailand.
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
I saw a copy of the “titillating” video, as have many of my Thai colleagues. Most did not look at it for long or very carefully. One who did claimed that there was a clear splice line at the neck, indicating that the event did not happen as portrayed, and that the video must be a smear job. This friend, who is far from a defender of the prince, must have had a better quality copy than I had, because I could not detect the same evidence of video tampering.
Support for Reds from Bangkok at large
Excellent comments, guys. Count me in. I’m in the same generation as you guys are. Couldn’t agree more and couldn’t say better.
The scourge of Burma, Part 3
AP,
Countless Burmese boys were dying of heroin overdoses well before young Australian men and women started dying in the lane ways of the Cross in Sydney.
Like opium as a legacy of British Empire, heroin is the long lasting legacy of America’s Vietnam War. CIA, with the help of White Chinese KMT remnants on the Burma-Thai border, introduced the large scale production of heroin to supply the drugs to their GIs in Vietnam.
The returning GIs brought back their heroin habits home and an enormous market was created on the streets of every countries of the developed world. A large scale industry was born and Burma as a failed-state is just satisfying that insatiable global demand.
At the beginning only the ethnic rebels were involved in the heroin industry. But gradually individual army units started benefiting from the heroin trade as my old company did by allowing the traffickers to use our train carriage.
Eventually the rouge and powerful elements of Burmese army started cooperating with the drug lords like Khun Sa and Lau Sit Han as the economic sanctions and international isolation has forced Burmese generals into a tight corner where the heroin trade is the only way to arm the large army and fight the long civil war.
Pepsi and Unocal and other large foreign businesses were forced to withdraw from Burma and the textile export industry was snuffed out in its infancy so Burmese were forced to flood USA and others with her only viable commodity left, the heroin.
The heroin scourge will continue unless the international community does the about turn and reengage with Burma.
Thai style democracy?
I agree George. Fortunately, the editorial bias and pro-Thaksin hidden agenda here is both pretty obvious and widely known.
Moreover, Thaksin’s abject failure to provide well-reasoned responses to criticism and to instead rely on non-stop blatant propaganda is unworthy of Thaksin – or anyone else – that puts a Ph.D. or any other university graduate title before their name.
Bottom line: “Power tends to corrupt”
Profits to be made?
Chris Beale. I agree there is discrimination against foreigners (not just farang) if they are direct investors who need to own land and/or own controlling stakes in their business. However, at the level of portfolio investors on the SET who only want fractional stakes there is not really much significant discrimination that affects how they trade or the returns they can make. Even the foreign ownership limit problems have been radically improved by NVDRs (non-voting depositary receipts). These have reduced the demand for foreign registered stock and brought foreign premiums down to reasonable levels for those (mainly pension managers who are legally required to excerise proxy votes). However, it does require time and patience to learn the Thai market and watch for opportunities which is difficult if you are working full time in another field.
Support for Reds from Bangkok at large
There should be this scene as there’re a lot of people from northern thailand and north eastern thailand who works in Bangkok.
The press in Thailand are so many, please visit ASTV manager http://www.tannetwork.tv/tan/ , and you will know a lot more on this red team.
Actually, they are not protest in peace, but, they had a team to fire the bomb, shot the police & soldiers, unseen from anyone. They also asked the stupid people to donate the blood to pure to the parliament and the PM’s private house. Do you think this is DEMOCRACY & pretest in peace? I don’t think so.
Support for Reds from Bangkok at large
I was curious about Thaksin’s latest phone in comments to the effect that Abhisit was bribing protestors to leave Bangkok, has a mental disorder akin to Adolf Hitler and is surrounded by homosexuals. Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black on all counts? Is this really the man who is going to lead Thailand to a new social order based on equality and rule of law without double standards. As you point out, it is never going to work, unless it can also appeal to the educated middle classes. Perhaps, if you middle class closet reds were brave enough to get out of the cupboard you could get together and find some a more credible leader. Since you acknowledge that it is going to take at least a generation, there is no reason to make do with such a deeply flawed character as a stop gap. Dump that guy and take the time to come up with some real ideology that will appeal to the middle class you know so well in addition to the rural poor and a establish a real leadership structre based on merit, not just one man based on his money.
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
Do you mean the ambassador for Nepal, Russia, or Laos?
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
Actually I thought the Crown Prince came off rather well in the Economist article. An eccentric Royal with a sense of humour (along the lines of Prince Charles) would be a breath of fresh air in Thailand. European Royal Families are no longer pompous and excessively formal.
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
silenced: should be easy to guess the name of at least one foreigner amongst them, since many in this forum were taking a dump on him a month or so back 🙂
Bangkok Post on the crown prince
For the benefits of those who don’t read Thai women’s magazines… The princess has been in Paris for quite some time now.
http://www.praew.com/fashioncover.aspx
The scourge of Burma, Part 3
Hi Hla Oo,
This is a good set of events that you presented here and i enjoyed reading it. The death of that boy in the start of your story and that of Jason had few common threads including both bad boys (kind of), both died in isolation and of course heroin. No matter what color of this powder may be, it brings death and destruction of oneself and associated families.
Burma is consider to be producer of approx. 70% of heroin consumed anywhere in this world and Burmese Junta is known to support this production.
I believe your ecperience from past as a soldier and as a student from repressed Burma could be explosive and an interesting read.
Hope to read your book soon.
Cheers
AP
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
anyone has any idea or want to guess who the “three trusted emissaries” mentioned in the article are?
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
A few years ago at a Cambridge Society of Thailand black tie banquet, the guest of honor was none other than the Crown Prince. The alum stood quietly in rows on the left and right sides of the entrance to the banquet hall, and as the door opened, who else but Captain Foo Foo walked in, graceful and dignified…
Good thing the Captain didn’t decide to take a crap.
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
Thanks, Patiwat…
I’ve been apprised of Thongchai’s opinion on same. My view is that a good idea is a good idea no matter with whom it is associated.
Support for Reds from Bangkok at large
I appreciate all comments here. Thank you very much.
But as chris beale has generalized for me this generation to be “born after ‘76 but brainwashed before May’92”, from my observation and assessment, this is not quite accurate.
I think the socio-economic group/generation I have in mind (which I also belong to as well) are those born from the 60s until maybe 90s. I think as long as you were young enough (i.e. still in primary/secondary school) when Prem just became a PM in 1980, then, you must have had been feeded with his propagandizing machine early enough and long enough.
I’m not too sure about younger generation (those born after from the 90s onwards) but I’m hopeful that most of them can see through all the propaganda (which were drummed up significantly again in the past several years) and view them irrelevant to their modern lives.
Also, in the 70s, I think the middle-class, let alone upper-middle-clase, were non-existence. So this class struggle things become mroe relevant to these class quite recently.
I only hope that, as one of you pointed out, the modern communication technology will make a difference this time. My fear is not that the middle class will not become a part of a force for progress but simply rather that they not becoming an obstacle to it.
The Economist stomps on some media taboos
Haven’t actually seen FuFu for quite some time. I seem to recall a promotion to colonel.
Bangkok Post on the crown prince
Ajarn Somsak, and others,
Just a small update on the comments here. Stumbling around the websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I noticed that Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana is no longer with the Royal Thai Embassy in Rome. She has now been transferred to the Embassy in Paris, but retains her Third Secretary status.
Readers interested in a full list of Thailand’s overseas missions will find one here.
Best wishes to all,
Nich