Err, who is marketing the “non-Thai” “Maew” and long neck Karen in TAT tourism package?
The Thainess in beauty contest have to get a face lift. No culture police needed to approve “culture.”
To sum up what this MoC do in our tax, a fellow said during Songkran, they monitor tiny tops, super short shorts, powder playing and how actress dressed. They make sure to give every Thai culture clean— by referring this is not the ways our ancestors did. Her ancestors are Victorian version of high class Thais, the cleaned and censored version of elite. That might be her victorianization of her Thai values. I won’t take that.
Ms. Ladda Tangsupachai is a very, very dangerous woman. In various interviews, she has described current Thai society as “sick” and lacking “traditional values.” Indeed, her
statements are chillingly evocative of the Nazi Party’s concept of entartete Knust.
To those who would see Ms. Tangsupachai as merely a bueaurcatic old prude who does nothing of much influence, I would admonish them that Ms. Tangsupachai’s position very
closely resembles that of Reichminister f├╝r Volksaufkl├дrung und Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. While “the Generals” represent the hard power of the junta, people like
Ms.Tangsupachai are its soft power. Soft power, is just as important, if not more important, to the creation and maintenance of hegemony.
In her comments concerning Thai national dress, the view of Thai culture that Ms. Tangsupachai puts forth clearly shows her allegiance to Fascist theories of Volkstum, that is
Thai culture is defined by the popular imagination of a pre-industrial rural Utopia, where the aboriginal Thais (that is, the central, “pure” ethnic group) possessed all they needed from
the land (calls for self-sufficency were a big part of the völkisch movement), to which they had an almost magical attachment. Layered on top of this mythical nostalgia is an
sentimental, irrational patriotism defined by ethnic terms. Local history (e.g. the Thai school curriculum that spends more time having students memorize the local crafts produced in every amphore than it does having students memorize the Periodic table) and local folklore (e.g. the morally didactic government produced cartoons based on the Ramakien and Khun Phaen) are promoted as away to protect the “purity” of the culture as a reaction to feelings of cultural alienation due to increased participation in globalization. Thailandisch Volkstum, as Sanitsuda Ekachai points out in her article, is centered around the court culture of the Central plains; that is, the Palace is the final arbiter of what is
“Thai,” all other discourses are “othered.”
The MoC’s “othering” of competing cultural discourses serves the same purpose as the concept of jahiliyyah (the belief that all culture and cultural artifacts, regardless of origin,
that originate from before the revelation of the Qur’an are worthless and should be erased from historical record) does for Islamic colonialism/Arabization; the purposeful devaluation of
the products of a peoples’ culture as a means of establishing control over them. If the products of the collective intellectual work of a people are devalued, then the people themselves are devalued as well. They come to see themselves as “othered,” inferior, and submissive.
Is any more commentary necessary when the first person who responded to this post used an ethnic slur in his/her argument? Truly, is any more commentary necessary when the fact is that the vast majority of Thais wouldn’t even know which word I’m referring to and why it’s offensive?
I never like pu erh. i dont know never really my cup. I prefer green tea..m favs would be dragonwell from teacuppa.com and lemon mint green from tealuxe.
Representative democracy is not really democracy. Society cannot work when there is a multiplicity of wills determining the sociological direction. The will of one (ie the King) is a much easier social framework for positive liberty because in representative democracy you are freeing yourself from what you have been in a lottery (electoral system) for determining. Whereas with a monarchy, while you are not responsible for determining the will of who is in control, and therefore a slave, you are not embalmed in the responsibility of electoral failure; and therefore on the scales – a little bit more free.
Although I do not agree that this is necessarily a good thing, I think that the people saying that one state of politics is more free than another are misguided because power is directed through one source, the law. The only question is who wields the law. And really, did people have much say over that anyway? I’d elect my uncle if i had any say!
Sonthi B has to think for the future as CNS and military are likely to face more sh-it than their OTHER strategic partners. With effecitive campaign, Prachatipat can emerge as a powerful faction in a near future coalition government. Regardless that it’ll be Prachatipat, not TRT, it signifies the return of the ‘politicians’ game’. This coup was staged to wipe out the parliamentarian power of politicians. Having a coalition government where politicans with their vested interest fight against one another is a safer option for coupmakers.
I wonder what will happen to the money for crude discovered off Sihanoukville. There really ought to be some international control over that money because otherwise it will go straight to this regime acting like a junta.
Also, what does Australia think its supporting here? Another Lee Kuan Yew?
It is bizarre to reduce the complexity, richness and contradictions in everything experienced in Thailand to a debate over the authenticity of a costume. People who engage in this kind of simplification are struggling to be identified as authorities who define public representations as being acceptable or otherwise to a broader social group. I guess the wider population must take such debates and such people seriously. But every country/minority group from Indonesia to Burma has a sarong with stylized patterns on it that its elites champion as a feature of ‘authentic’ and original identity. Is this such an ‘outsider’ observation or can most Thai people see the absurdity of such a thing too?
jeru, you read the lines wrong. Some person named svl wrote them.
But I agree with your other comment: I was laughing at Sonthi B’s amnesty offer. Pure hypocrisy on the General’s part, given the fact that without his post-coup declaration, the TRT 109 would never have been punished in the first place.
Chaiwat’s joke isn’t really a joke. Recall that after the coup, the text of the 1997 constitution was taken off the Parliament’s website. It might also have been removed from the Parliament’s library as well.
IMHO Ms. Fahroong is just doing her job as Ms. Thailand. Showing what a fun and creative place Thailand is. TAT loves her, I bet. That is a pretty offbeat and wacky skirt-jacket-headress combo. New Mandala will get a jump in traffic because of the Ms. Fahroong photos, I bet. IMHO contemporary Thai culture is fusion culture.
This reminds me of the time I assigned explaining northern Thai Supphasit [proverbs] in English as an oral presentation assignment and the students chose the most raunchiest proverbs they could find in the book, proverbs about old wilting rice stocks or comparing tangible solid results with the distinction between flatulence and solid waste matter. I was shocked and expressed displeasure, of course, because I was an Ajaan. I certainly didn’t laugh, but I actually was pleased to learn more about Tai sayings. Later when I told my rather prudish supervisor, I got thoroughly upbraided, for what it’s not clear, since I didn’t realise the full extent of Thai folklore!
“…looking on the Reference shelves in a Bangkok university’s library for a copy of Thailand’s Constitution…Not able to find any such copies on the shelves, she proceeds to the Help Desk to ask the librarian to help locate it.”
Actually, at Chula’s Siam Square I saw a slim volume with all the constitutions except the 1997 one in English, but honestly, the constitution in Thailand has not fulfilled the same function as it has in the United States or other countries (maybe more so in the EU with its current constitutional crisis).
The constitution is a focal point for change and national debate. Because there are enough vocal people in Thailand (in 1997 my Thai friends even asked me to join in the constitutional march, but me a Farang?), there’ll be a return to the principles of the 1997 consitution, I bet, but hopefully without the demagoguery and one party outcome of the last round. IMHO There’s no final solution, only a continually evolving one, so many constitutions is a non-issue.
By even mentioning the fact of so many constitutions you can shame law students into silence of course or into hating you because you’re a Farang who wants to make embarassing facts more visible. So you don’t do that because students would complain and you would get fired. Never mind that it is really the less visible subject matter of the annual Amnesty International report that these law students should be ashamed of, the actions of Thaksin being a big part of that.
Well, she is “Miss Thailand”, not “Miss Maew”. I have no issue with some Laos or Burmese wearing a national costume like that, but it’s absurd to see a Thai girl wearing that. She and her costume designer should be ashamed of themselves. She should also offer to give up her crown to display some spirit.
I take it back. The best joke of the day came not from Patiwat but from the junta chief General Sonthi himself. General Sonthi just said straight-faced that he is in favour of giving amnesty to the recently punished 111 TRT executives from the 5 year political ban.
This time only Bangkok Pundit and Patiwat were laughing . . .
[…] lucky enough to visit the field site of RMAP student Kathy (Jinghong) Zhang. Kathy is undertaking fascinating research on tea trade in the far south of China. Her primary field site is the mountain township of Yiwu […]
Patiwat made the audience at Fonzi’s ThailandJumpedtheShark stage roar with guffaws with his joke of the day – – – “that Thaksin’s extrajudicial killings for expediency, election fraud to win, and, blatant dishonesty in elected officials are justified so long as there is ‘trickle-down’ effect on the poor.” Except for one in the audience named BangkokPundit who appeared to not get Patiwat’s joke!
Patiwat had an even better joke about Thaksin eating still-borns at TheShark stage, but BangkokPundit was clueless as usual.
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Spot the Thai national dress
Err, who is marketing the “non-Thai” “Maew” and long neck Karen in TAT tourism package?
The Thainess in beauty contest have to get a face lift. No culture police needed to approve “culture.”
To sum up what this MoC do in our tax, a fellow said during Songkran, they monitor tiny tops, super short shorts, powder playing and how actress dressed. They make sure to give every Thai culture clean— by referring this is not the ways our ancestors did. Her ancestors are Victorian version of high class Thais, the cleaned and censored version of elite. That might be her victorianization of her Thai values. I won’t take that.
Spot the Thai national dress
Ms. Ladda Tangsupachai is a very, very dangerous woman. In various interviews, she has described current Thai society as “sick” and lacking “traditional values.” Indeed, her
statements are chillingly evocative of the Nazi Party’s concept of entartete Knust .
To those who would see Ms. Tangsupachai as merely a bueaurcatic old prude who does nothing of much influence, I would admonish them that Ms. Tangsupachai’s position very
closely resembles that of Reichminister f├╝r Volksaufkl├дrung und Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. While “the Generals” represent the hard power of the junta, people like
Ms.Tangsupachai are its soft power. Soft power, is just as important, if not more important, to the creation and maintenance of hegemony.
In her comments concerning Thai national dress, the view of Thai culture that Ms. Tangsupachai puts forth clearly shows her allegiance to Fascist theories of Volkstum, that is
Thai culture is defined by the popular imagination of a pre-industrial rural Utopia, where the aboriginal Thais (that is, the central, “pure” ethnic group) possessed all they needed from
the land (calls for self-sufficency were a big part of the völkisch movement), to which they had an almost magical attachment. Layered on top of this mythical nostalgia is an
sentimental, irrational patriotism defined by ethnic terms. Local history (e.g. the Thai school curriculum that spends more time having students memorize the local crafts produced in every
amphore than it does having students memorize the Periodic table) and local folklore (e.g. the morally didactic government produced cartoons based on the Ramakien and
Khun Phaen) are promoted as away to protect the “purity” of the culture as a reaction to feelings of cultural alienation due to increased participation in globalization.
Thailandisch Volkstum, as Sanitsuda Ekachai points out in her article, is centered around the court culture of the Central plains; that is, the Palace is the final arbiter of what is
“Thai,” all other discourses are “othered.”
The MoC’s “othering” of competing cultural discourses serves the same purpose as the concept of jahiliyyah (the belief that all culture and cultural artifacts, regardless of origin,
that originate from before the revelation of the Qur’an are worthless and should be erased from historical record) does for Islamic colonialism/Arabization; the purposeful devaluation of
the products of a peoples’ culture as a means of establishing control over them. If the products of the collective intellectual work of a people are devalued, then the people themselves are devalued as well. They come to see themselves as “othered,” inferior, and submissive.
Is any more commentary necessary when the first person who responded to this post used an ethnic slur in his/her argument? Truly, is any more commentary necessary when the fact is that the vast majority of Thais wouldn’t even know which word I’m referring to and why it’s offensive?
tutorial Judi card Bandarq utk mendapatkan Kemenangan
I never like pu erh. i dont know never really my cup. I prefer green tea..m favs would be dragonwell from teacuppa.com and lemon mint green from tealuxe.
Electoral sabotage bears rich fruit
Representative democracy is not really democracy. Society cannot work when there is a multiplicity of wills determining the sociological direction. The will of one (ie the King) is a much easier social framework for positive liberty because in representative democracy you are freeing yourself from what you have been in a lottery (electoral system) for determining. Whereas with a monarchy, while you are not responsible for determining the will of who is in control, and therefore a slave, you are not embalmed in the responsibility of electoral failure; and therefore on the scales – a little bit more free.
Although I do not agree that this is necessarily a good thing, I think that the people saying that one state of politics is more free than another are misguided because power is directed through one source, the law. The only question is who wields the law. And really, did people have much say over that anyway? I’d elect my uncle if i had any say!
Light relief
Sonthi B has to think for the future as CNS and military are likely to face more sh-it than their OTHER strategic partners. With effecitive campaign, Prachatipat can emerge as a powerful faction in a near future coalition government. Regardless that it’ll be Prachatipat, not TRT, it signifies the return of the ‘politicians’ game’. This coup was staged to wipe out the parliamentarian power of politicians. Having a coalition government where politicans with their vested interest fight against one another is a safer option for coupmakers.
Spot the Thai national dress
Appropriate picture of Ladda. Very Orwellian!
Cambodia’s kleptocratic plunder
I wonder what will happen to the money for crude discovered off Sihanoukville. There really ought to be some international control over that money because otherwise it will go straight to this regime acting like a junta.
Also, what does Australia think its supporting here? Another Lee Kuan Yew?
Light relief
I first heard this joke back in Prem’s time as PM.
Spot the Thai national dress
It is bizarre to reduce the complexity, richness and contradictions in everything experienced in Thailand to a debate over the authenticity of a costume. People who engage in this kind of simplification are struggling to be identified as authorities who define public representations as being acceptable or otherwise to a broader social group. I guess the wider population must take such debates and such people seriously. But every country/minority group from Indonesia to Burma has a sarong with stylized patterns on it that its elites champion as a feature of ‘authentic’ and original identity. Is this such an ‘outsider’ observation or can most Thai people see the absurdity of such a thing too?
Light relief
jeru, you read the lines wrong. Some person named svl wrote them.
But I agree with your other comment: I was laughing at Sonthi B’s amnesty offer. Pure hypocrisy on the General’s part, given the fact that without his post-coup declaration, the TRT 109 would never have been punished in the first place.
Chaiwat’s joke isn’t really a joke. Recall that after the coup, the text of the 1997 constitution was taken off the Parliament’s website. It might also have been removed from the Parliament’s library as well.
Upakhut – saint and spirit
[…] late April, I┬ posted some Burmese┬ images of the Buddhist saint/spirit Upakhut. During my recent visit to Sipsonpanna I […]
Spot the Thai national dress
IMHO Ms. Fahroong is just doing her job as Ms. Thailand. Showing what a fun and creative place Thailand is. TAT loves her, I bet. That is a pretty offbeat and wacky skirt-jacket-headress combo. New Mandala will get a jump in traffic because of the Ms. Fahroong photos, I bet. IMHO contemporary Thai culture is fusion culture.
This reminds me of the time I assigned explaining northern Thai Supphasit [proverbs] in English as an oral presentation assignment and the students chose the most raunchiest proverbs they could find in the book, proverbs about old wilting rice stocks or comparing tangible solid results with the distinction between flatulence and solid waste matter. I was shocked and expressed displeasure, of course, because I was an Ajaan. I certainly didn’t laugh, but I actually was pleased to learn more about Tai sayings. Later when I told my rather prudish supervisor, I got thoroughly upbraided, for what it’s not clear, since I didn’t realise the full extent of Thai folklore!
Light relief
“…looking on the Reference shelves in a Bangkok university’s library for a copy of Thailand’s Constitution…Not able to find any such copies on the shelves, she proceeds to the Help Desk to ask the librarian to help locate it.”
Actually, at Chula’s Siam Square I saw a slim volume with all the constitutions except the 1997 one in English, but honestly, the constitution in Thailand has not fulfilled the same function as it has in the United States or other countries (maybe more so in the EU with its current constitutional crisis).
The constitution is a focal point for change and national debate. Because there are enough vocal people in Thailand (in 1997 my Thai friends even asked me to join in the constitutional march, but me a Farang?), there’ll be a return to the principles of the 1997 consitution, I bet, but hopefully without the demagoguery and one party outcome of the last round. IMHO There’s no final solution, only a continually evolving one, so many constitutions is a non-issue.
By even mentioning the fact of so many constitutions you can shame law students into silence of course or into hating you because you’re a Farang who wants to make embarassing facts more visible. So you don’t do that because students would complain and you would get fired. Never mind that it is really the less visible subject matter of the annual Amnesty International report that these law students should be ashamed of, the actions of Thaksin being a big part of that.
Spot the Thai national dress
But why would the costume represent Laos or Burma any more legitimately than Thailand?
Light relief
Patiwat,
Either you were joking or you were not. But you wrote those jokes . . . at least that is how I read your lines at Fonzi.
Spot the Thai national dress
Well, she is “Miss Thailand”, not “Miss Maew”. I have no issue with some Laos or Burmese wearing a national costume like that, but it’s absurd to see a Thai girl wearing that. She and her costume designer should be ashamed of themselves. She should also offer to give up her crown to display some spirit.
Light relief
jeru, I did not write that.
Thaksin’s “voodoo” must be imparing your judgement.
Light relief
I take it back. The best joke of the day came not from Patiwat but from the junta chief General Sonthi himself. General Sonthi just said straight-faced that he is in favour of giving amnesty to the recently punished 111 TRT executives from the 5 year political ban.
This time only Bangkok Pundit and Patiwat were laughing . . .
tutorial Judi card Bandarq utk mendapatkan Kemenangan
[…] lucky enough to visit the field site of RMAP student Kathy (Jinghong) Zhang. Kathy is undertaking fascinating research on tea trade in the far south of China. Her primary field site is the mountain township of Yiwu […]
Light relief
Patiwat made the audience at Fonzi’s ThailandJumpedtheShark stage roar with guffaws with his joke of the day – – – “that Thaksin’s extrajudicial killings for expediency, election fraud to win, and, blatant dishonesty in elected officials are justified so long as there is ‘trickle-down’ effect on the poor.” Except for one in the audience named BangkokPundit who appeared to not get Patiwat’s joke!
Patiwat had an even better joke about Thaksin eating still-borns at TheShark stage, but BangkokPundit was clueless as usual.