Comments

  1. […] here. The Norwegians have a similar batch of awards which I once referenced in relation to this short piece on tourism in Southeast […]

  2. Hey, remember when Rambo helped those brave Afgani mujahideen fight off the Soviets? Boy, those Islamic freedom fighters were so grateful to Rambo and the U.S. military for their assistance! Remember how the example Rambo set inspired the mujahideen to establish a new Afganistan based on democratic values and free enterprise? A paradise on Earth those two created!

  3. amberwaves says:

    >Ah, proof!
    Of course none of the government channels showed it, os it had to be on ASTV.
    The victim was onstage in full garb, including the sling, bandaged arm and testimony that he had had I believe he said 14 stitches. That is where the story came from, the man himself, and I really don’t think even Limthongkul would go that far to arrange a show.
    ————–
    On stage at the PAD rally, I assume you mean. For me, that would be a negative indicator of credibility. For all I _ or you, it turns out _ know, the guy could have fallen drunk off the back of a truck.

    But admittedly, we are both being subjective about the credibility of the PAD. And I doubt that either you or I have the time and resources to get to the bottom of this particular case.

    What I do question is your statement that “Of course none of the government channels showed it…” I’ve seen hours of coverage of the PAD actions in recent days, including extended remarks from their leaders, especially Chamlong. I do doubt the other channels showed this particular guy, but why should they – are they expected to have wall-to-wall PAD coverage?

    I’m not saying their coverage is particularly praiseworthy – though spare some time for ThaiPBS – but ASTV simply regurgitating everything the PAD says is hardly an exemplar of professional journalism either.

    If on the other hand your argument is that ASTV serves as an example of how there should be a diversity of opinions available, then I am with you all the way, and assume you also oppose all governments’ – most recently Thaksin’s, Surayud’s, and Samak’s – efforts to curb freedom of information, including the blocking of Web sites. Are we in agreement on that?

  4. Wora says:

    Taksin is the causes of all problem, he must go to jail now!!!

  5. Don Jameson says:

    Sorry, I cannot provide any more details on the Robert Horn story except that it did not involve sex. But just reading his blog postings shoud give you an idea of the sort of personality we are, and were, dealing with

  6. goodbye Thailand says:

    High caste, Its suck, they ‘ere support this mob by collaborate with democrat party, Thai people have known better that Gen.Prem ‘s behind the scene, he ‘s just revenge Samak who was baste him on stage every time during the campaign for general election last year.

    all political party of Gen.Prem lose out, his plan absolutely failed, so he used PAD to press the outside and used Democrat party and feudal servant senator to press inside.

  7. Hi,

    There is a deep connection between the mystical insights of Buddhism and the science of Quantum Physics. Gary Zukhav – in the book The Dancing Wu Li Masters – describes how the past, present and future converge to a single point – that is the Here and Now.

    I would certianly be interested in the findings of the conference as the above book – interesting though it was – described findings that were more than 30 years old and I would like to learn of further developments in Quantum Physics and Science in general that have in common with the Buddhist view of the Universe.

    If possible please explain the same in non scientific language.

    regards

    Nikhil

  8. lou says:

    The correct spelling is “lèse-majesté” (“lese majeste” is accepted in English too).
    This French expression comes from Latin “l├жsa maiesta” which can be translated as “injured monarchy”.

  9. Robert Horn says:

    “I want to know about the Robert Horn who was forced to leave Burma involuntarily.

    Was it a sex scandal?

    Salacious minds want to know!”

    Oh definitely. I was arrested, tortured for five days at Insein prison and then deported from the country after the authorities discovered me having a menage a trois with the Sandar Win and Thandar Shwe in the penthouse of the Traders Hotel.

    It was the rhyming moans that turned me on. ‘Oh, Sandar! Oh Thandar!’

    Little did I realize that the tryst was being filmed by Lo Hsing Han!!!

  10. fall says:

    Jon: both have checks and balances, both can be manipulated by big money business interests, and both are extremely overdetermined concepts

    Well, it would be nice to have TV show debate the definition of democracy according to PPP vs PAD version. They could try, but I doubt there would be a definite resolution.
    IMO, democracy is overrated. It is basically a majority mandate on electing a leader. And hopefully the joker would do half a good job as promise.

    “It had been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”

    The PAD view PPP as using democracy pretext for a mean to an end, which is rural majority mandate to totalitarian rule.
    But there had been little discussion about the PAD itself and what mean or end it would lead to. IMO, it seem like the PAD advocate to urban elite minority mandate to totalitarian rule itself. That has even less to do with general definition of democray, but more like a new sakdina or oligarchy.

  11. 22 June 2008
    Ah, proof!
    Of course none of the government channels showed it, os it had to be on ASTV.
    The victim was onstage in full garb, including the sling, bandaged arm and testimony that he had had I believe he said 14 stitches. That is where the story came from, the man himself, and I really don’t think even Limthongkul would go that far to arrange a show.
    As to my reminding someone of a Western Sondhi, thanks for the compliment but it’s not deserved. I was never a business partner of Thaksin and I don’t go things for personal gratification, unless it’s to stomp someone who has been totally unfair to someone else.
    I depart from many of the people you might have run into in the past because I don’t automatically agree with many people about anything until I know what they are talking about and get the impression that I can trust what they say. I do not feel that way about Sondhi, having met and spoken with him in Korat and coming away with the impression that like many leaders the world over he has a falsely inflated opinion of himself and the way he does things.
    My wife and I have been subjected here in Korat to xenophobic public harangues on the radio and elsewhere because of stands we took. We are old-fashioned, stubborn, and hopefully willing to change our minds when we are wrong. In fact, my cross-referencing lately on this website and others has been useful in discussing with my wife the PAD thrust and its leaderships to underscore some of the imperfections in these guys and how they sometimes do things. All this flag-waving and citing the monarchy bothers me immensely, but as I said before, all sides do this and they take advantage of the monarchy in ways that are highly improper if not totally unethical and even illegal. But when politicians and others go pell-mell with this assault no one here seems to understand that the law has got to be changed on the one hand, and internal police procedures on the other.
    I’ve been accused as fact on radio as committing lese majeste even though what I was supposed to have said was a total fabrication and designed to enlist support for a corrupt abbot and his little mafia. So I have been around the pole a couple of times and know that things here are not going to change voluntarily. People of goodwill must take this matter to the courts to get it resolved in a fair fashion. It’s as if people don’t want to take advice from the king when he speaks of needing to be criticized. Heck, over two years after a UK national and Thai police Lt. Col. take it upon themselves to safeguard the monarchy by insulting it further with spurious and maliciously ignorant charges. Why is is that these characters are not counter-charged themselves and have to sign some papers of responsibility before they ruin people’s careers and hurt their standing, honor and reputations? I recall when Thaksin was still around with the FEER incident. At the time I was English language editor for Tilleke and Gibbins, the firm that represented FEER. T&G didn’t want to stir up any problems and Thaksin being so powerful it would have been suicide to take the FEER side. So they engineered a shameful apology while Thai TV anchors all knowingly smiled at one another over all channels to raise the victory sign against more foreigners trying to insult the king. This incident was such a sham, and such a shame, but authorities here don’t even have the intelligence and spiritual empathy to know this or cultural sensitivity to appreciate it. This feudal attitude is what keeps the old LM ball rolling, and it is far past time that people organize in the courts and get some changes made.
    Too much preaching! Sorry…

  12. Robert Horn says:

    “Frank, its good to see the old “voters are stupid country bumpkins” argument featuring again on New Mandala. But why not go and talk to some of them and see what they have to say. Those who do usually come back with a rather different perspective.”

    I have talked to plenty of them. I don’t think, in general, they are stupid, and I wouldn’t use the term country bumpkins for most of them.

    On the other hand, it was clear that they were unaware of many of the things Thaksin and company had done that had raised the ire of urban people.

    My guess, however, was that even if they knew about most (but not all) of these things, they would still vote for him because, as they see it, he delivered for them as no previous prime minister had.

    Elections here are without a doubt dirty and crooked. Nonetheless, I believe the results of recent years do reflect the will of the majority of the electorate. The electorate, however, is not fully informed.

    The real shame of it all is that, having delivered for these people, Thaksin could have at least tried to clean up the elections. He could have won a clean election and gone down in history as a statesman for doing so.

    The fact that he never even tried speaks volumes about his character.

  13. Sorry Jon,

    The sometimes temperamental NM spam filter has, in the past day, been doing lots of work. As you know, it is sometimes over-zealous. Please accept our apologies for this inconvenience. I have now found and posted all of your comments. If anyone else is in the same position please don’t hesitate to let me know.

    Best wishes to all,

    Nich

  14. Robert Horn says:

    Mr. Jameson, you really should stop making things up and telling lies – oh, but that’s the whole basis of your “research.”

    Really. Where’s your proof?

    You don’t have any.

    Because you’re lying.

  15. Reg Varney says:

    It is clear what the PAD wants – they are the chosen tools of those who were disappointed by the December election result. The military, palace and other assorted conservatives opposed to Thaksin/Samak/TRT/PPP thought the Dems could win the election. They didn’t and they can’t accept the result. So they are overturning it. Forget the buddhist nonsense for this is power politics plain and simple.

  16. David Everett says:

    Hi Grasshopper, I appreciate what you are saying mate, but foreign assistance with the ethnic minorities is miniscule. It doesn’t matter if foreigners were with them or not, the junta have plenty of alternatives to enforce their rule and make slaves of the population. I am all for appeasement, like Nevil Chamberlin was, but people die when good men do nothing. It was only because the French and poms went to war with Germany, that the nazi war machine was brought to its knees. Appeasement with Hitler didn’t work and it won’t with the Burman generals. I have watched the suffering of the Burmese people since 1986 and the military will not change. I have heard all this crap before. Go and swap places with Aung San Suu Kyi or any of the political prisoners locked in Insein prison them come back on here and talk appeasement. Sorry, I am getting a bit emotional here as I have seen what they do. Wish they could all take a happy pill and the world would be a sweeter place. But it ain’t that way my friend. As I say and have said before, get into the real world. I have done the academic side of things as well as the rough side of life, believe me, you are wasting your time and civilian lives by your appeasement to the junta, they laugh at people like you. It enforces their belief in the stupidity of foreigners. Check out my website if you want to see my academic background. http://www.dangerousdaveeverett.com
    The military keep the people dumbed down to keep them submissive. I suggest you catch a plane to Rangoon, get an appointment with the generals and tell them what bad boys they have been. Stand them in the naughty corner and all will be apples and oranges.
    I am sorry if I am being a bit harsh, as I said before, I just get ill with all these talk fests by foreign governments, because that is all they are. I wish I had the answer, but I do believe everybody has the right to fight for their freedoms if their lives and family are threatened.

  17. amberwaves says:

    Re: the Printing Act

    I’d try the libraries at Chula and Thammasat if I were in Bangkok.

    Otherwise consider contacting the Thai Journalists Association, or Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT). Or maybe the Law Society of Thailand (though I can’t recall — did they change their name to the Lawyers Council of Thailand — or was it the other way around?)

    At a pinch try contacting a newspaper or active publishing house, whose lawyers should have a clue.

  18. amberwaves says:

    Forget this Robert Horn, he’s boring.

    I want to know about the Robert Horn who was forced to leave Burma involuntarily.

    Was it a sex scandal?

    Salacious minds want to know!

  19. amberwaves says:

    >I don’t know who was watching TV yesterday, but a Thai PAD supporter had been stopped by the police and after a rough interview, etc., got his arm broken. This was in the vicinity, I believe, where suddenly spikes police used, and nails, littered the highway. Police – “We don’t know anything about this.”

    I was not watching TV yesterday, can you tell us what channel showed this?

    Did they actually show this happening or did they show someone *saying* it happened?

    Finally, where does the diagnosis “broken arm,” come from?

    I believe your contributions here are valuable and thought-provoking. Just help us out a little bit on this one.

  20. nganadeeleg says:

    Those who do usually come back with a rather different perspective.

    Or they could come back are even more dismayed at the ignorance that prevails.