In the last vociferous thread where moderators withheld my posts I have three comments comparing to nine directed at me, so it’s not exactly like I’m spamming the blog but rather that I elicit a lot of responses and that sometimes makes a mess of things and moderators need to step in.
To avoid this kind of escalations I should never say anything that could be construed as being in defense of either the coup or monarchy or LM law and, in effect, I should practice self-censorship. I’m actually more or less fine with it, restricted discussion is better than no discussion at all, just spare me this “freedom of speech” nonsense.
I don’t think Free Speech necessarily means and is limited to the idea that someone who takes the time and effort to mount an interesting blog is required to allow a very repetitive, not terribly interesting or insightful person to overwhelm the comment threads to the extent that they drown out and repel many other people who might wish to follow the blog and participate in a constructive, intelligent and refreshing way in the various threads.
It’s kind of like an Open Town Hall meeting where one terribly determined, slightly dim and self-convinced person just keeps standing up and interrupting everyone else who patiently sit there tapping their hands and feet as they allow him to soak up hours of their time and delay the discussion and business at hand from moving forward.
Can the whole lot of you here stop playing judge dredd with that fuzzy facts you have about the flesh trade industry in Singapore!?
Many illegal prostitutes in Singapore are just on tourist visas hoping to make a quick buck out of the 30days or so they are allowed in here. There is no human trafficking involved; some come over as a “tourists” and when in here they either rely on their pimps for business or they would walk the streets for customers.
As for those girls operating in the legalised red light district, how the hell can they be coerced into the flesh trade when it is legalised!?
It’s time that you guys wipe that crocodile’s tears off your silly faces. The truth is many of these girls see selling their body in Singapore as a golden opportunity to make quick money, given Singapore’s lax immigation policy and its strong SGD.
Any given night, just walk down the red light district in any SE Asian country and you’ll see that most of the customers are actually western men. Perhaps, one of the best way to discourage the flesh trade in SE Asia is to get the Western men to stop organising sex tours to SE Asia.
Nick and Andrew, I’m not complaining about your policy, it is more or less exactly what I expected. It appears contradictory to “free speech” principle, that’s all. Those who are familiar with my views know that I don’t hold it in a very high regard myself, for example when it comes to abolishing LM laws.
Moderation is necessary and natural, imo, I don’t hold it against you.
I have not protested and I’m not complaining and I do not claim my rights given back to me, I never had them in the first place, it’s your site and you set the rules and I agree to follow them.
One way or another, it’s obvious that both you and me have problems with the way things have been going, and the solution was to hold some of my posts back. Is it censorship? Not exactly, the effect is the same, though.
Oh, maybe if you removed all juvenile and personal attacks on me the total post count would be cut by a third, not that they bother me very much.
And my post was mostly about NM community, not moderators. You didn’t call me stupid, troll, and my posts crap, “they” did.
I lurk here often but was compelled by this post to make a comment.
Keeping a comment from being published is exactly the opposite of free and and open and is the exact definition of censorship.
Your readers will judge whether someone is dominating the discussion and act appropriately by either moving the discussion forward or completely ignoring him.
I think that the title of the book reflects all the problems going on around the king:
The Princess photographed in a sexually suggestive/provocative manner;
The endeavour to get a Nobel Prize for the other Princess;
The (bad) behaviour of the Crown Prince;
And most of all, the queen herself……every Tom, Dick and Harry (whatever the equivalent in Thai is) knows about the queen……there used to be mysterious fax coming to you office fax machine with all the story about the , so called, “Royal Household”…..
The list can go on and on and on.
I just feel sorry for the Thais who are so blind by the ‘love’ of their king (who was a Jazz musician, artist, sailor,etc…) See the book for more info.
” will be screened to the public ” = ” will be forced down the throats of the public ”
Expect this latest example of reflexive, brain-dead hagiography to become a permanent fixture in all cinemas soon. And woebetide all who don’t show a properly submissive response.
Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth — are those the reincarnations of Minnie and Mickey Mouse? And in your list of suggested readings, you did not even mention Niklas Luhmann!! Have you even ever heard of him?
I’m curious how the NLA is receiving these publications? Do any of the journals allow international subscription? Or are they forwarded to the NLA through some sort of service?
That is very clever: to do away with incense sticks. I don’t think they will be missed. And by the way, might not the word “monastery” suit Buddhism better than the word “temple”? Hindu temple, yes, but not Buddist temple.
[…] there were the fire-bombings of places of worship (mostly Christian) after the “Allah” court ruling which shattered Malaysia’s facade as a peaceful nation where people of different […]
[…] is seen as the new “Mahathir” (read here). Despite, Najib’s policy prescription of “Malay Leadership”, it appears that UMNO is still about “Malay Supremacy” as represented by […]
[…] Alladin is posting it on a site where the community exhibits palpable contempt for anybody with a differing opinion. Forget attacking me, recently they had a good go at Stephen Young, an academic with a long history of involvement with Thailand, and Borwornsak Uwanno, a Thai academic who represents largely mainstream views. Alladin here is talking about proposal put forward by another New Mandala regular, Somsak Jeamteerasakul, who once couldn’t last two posts without resorting to “are you stupid?” and “asserting all the crap” arguments. […]
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Is Najib on his way out?
[…] …read more (New Mandala) […]
What you see on New Mandala
In the last vociferous thread where moderators withheld my posts I have three comments comparing to nine directed at me, so it’s not exactly like I’m spamming the blog but rather that I elicit a lot of responses and that sometimes makes a mess of things and moderators need to step in.
To avoid this kind of escalations I should never say anything that could be construed as being in defense of either the coup or monarchy or LM law and, in effect, I should practice self-censorship. I’m actually more or less fine with it, restricted discussion is better than no discussion at all, just spare me this “freedom of speech” nonsense.
What you see on New Mandala
that stang got his own blog, so he should go fool himself over there instead of polluting this blog! :/
What you see on New Mandala
I don’t think Free Speech necessarily means and is limited to the idea that someone who takes the time and effort to mount an interesting blog is required to allow a very repetitive, not terribly interesting or insightful person to overwhelm the comment threads to the extent that they drown out and repel many other people who might wish to follow the blog and participate in a constructive, intelligent and refreshing way in the various threads.
It’s kind of like an Open Town Hall meeting where one terribly determined, slightly dim and self-convinced person just keeps standing up and interrupting everyone else who patiently sit there tapping their hands and feet as they allow him to soak up hours of their time and delay the discussion and business at hand from moving forward.
Sex trafficking in Singapore
Can the whole lot of you here stop playing judge dredd with that fuzzy facts you have about the flesh trade industry in Singapore!?
Many illegal prostitutes in Singapore are just on tourist visas hoping to make a quick buck out of the 30days or so they are allowed in here. There is no human trafficking involved; some come over as a “tourists” and when in here they either rely on their pimps for business or they would walk the streets for customers.
As for those girls operating in the legalised red light district, how the hell can they be coerced into the flesh trade when it is legalised!?
It’s time that you guys wipe that crocodile’s tears off your silly faces. The truth is many of these girls see selling their body in Singapore as a golden opportunity to make quick money, given Singapore’s lax immigation policy and its strong SGD.
Any given night, just walk down the red light district in any SE Asian country and you’ll see that most of the customers are actually western men. Perhaps, one of the best way to discourage the flesh trade in SE Asia is to get the Western men to stop organising sex tours to SE Asia.
What you see on New Mandala
Nick and Andrew, I’m not complaining about your policy, it is more or less exactly what I expected. It appears contradictory to “free speech” principle, that’s all. Those who are familiar with my views know that I don’t hold it in a very high regard myself, for example when it comes to abolishing LM laws.
Moderation is necessary and natural, imo, I don’t hold it against you.
I have not protested and I’m not complaining and I do not claim my rights given back to me, I never had them in the first place, it’s your site and you set the rules and I agree to follow them.
One way or another, it’s obvious that both you and me have problems with the way things have been going, and the solution was to hold some of my posts back. Is it censorship? Not exactly, the effect is the same, though.
Oh, maybe if you removed all juvenile and personal attacks on me the total post count would be cut by a third, not that they bother me very much.
And my post was mostly about NM community, not moderators. You didn’t call me stupid, troll, and my posts crap, “they” did.
What you see on New Mandala
I lurk here often but was compelled by this post to make a comment.
Keeping a comment from being published is exactly the opposite of free and and open and is the exact definition of censorship.
Your readers will judge whether someone is dominating the discussion and act appropriately by either moving the discussion forward or completely ignoring him.
No incense?
[…] No Incense? February 17, 2010 Posted by Danny Fisher in Laos, incense. Tags: incense, Laos, New Mandala trackback This via New Mandala: […]
The King Never Smiles?
I think that the title of the book reflects all the problems going on around the king:
The Princess photographed in a sexually suggestive/provocative manner;
The endeavour to get a Nobel Prize for the other Princess;
The (bad) behaviour of the Crown Prince;
And most of all, the queen herself……every Tom, Dick and Harry (whatever the equivalent in Thai is) knows about the queen……there used to be mysterious fax coming to you office fax machine with all the story about the , so called, “Royal Household”…..
The list can go on and on and on.
I just feel sorry for the Thais who are so blind by the ‘love’ of their king (who was a Jazz musician, artist, sailor,etc…) See the book for more info.
Should I say more……?
Thailand’s “creative king”
” will be screened to the public ” = ” will be forced down the throats of the public ”
Expect this latest example of reflexive, brain-dead hagiography to become a permanent fixture in all cinemas soon. And woebetide all who don’t show a properly submissive response.
The King Never Smiles?
Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth — are those the reincarnations of Minnie and Mickey Mouse? And in your list of suggested readings, you did not even mention Niklas Luhmann!! Have you even ever heard of him?
Burmese serials at the NLA
I’m curious how the NLA is receiving these publications? Do any of the journals allow international subscription? Or are they forwarded to the NLA through some sort of service?
Thanks,
Dylan
No incense?
That is very clever: to do away with incense sticks. I don’t think they will be missed. And by the way, might not the word “monastery” suit Buddhism better than the word “temple”? Hindu temple, yes, but not Buddist temple.
The Allah dilemma in Malaysia
[…] there were the fire-bombings of places of worship (mostly Christian) after the “Allah” court ruling which shattered Malaysia’s facade as a peaceful nation where people of different […]
Najib in 2010 – More of the same?
[…] is seen as the new “Mahathir” (read here). Despite, Najib’s policy prescription of “Malay Leadership”, it appears that UMNO is still about “Malay Supremacy” as represented by […]
The King Never Smiles?
Rubykon: Please come back – StanG needs you 🙂
http://siampolitics.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/what-you-dont-see-on-new-mandala/
Elephants in the room – Part 3
[…] Recently a guest contributor, Thomas Hoi, posted a three part article called Elephants in the room. […]
Elephants in the room: Part 2
[…] of NM regulars, and it’s fair to assume that he reflects the opinion of the community there. Ralph Kramden // Feb 9, 2010 at 1:50 […]
Stephen B. Young on a “grand consultation”
[…] Anonymous1 // Jan 29, 2010 at 5:53 pm […]
Thaksin on Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn
[…] Alladin is posting it on a site where the community exhibits palpable contempt for anybody with a differing opinion. Forget attacking me, recently they had a good go at Stephen Young, an academic with a long history of involvement with Thailand, and Borwornsak Uwanno, a Thai academic who represents largely mainstream views. Alladin here is talking about proposal put forward by another New Mandala regular, Somsak Jeamteerasakul, who once couldn’t last two posts without resorting to “are you stupid?” and “asserting all the crap” arguments. […]