Actually Jon, I did that (paid to work) in Nepal. I was naive and it had a lot to do with my mother (haha), but it was the most corrupt thing I’ve ever witnessed first hand. I was seeing kids who’d worked in carpet factories and brothels every day, while the people who ran the organisations lived in 22 room houses and only occupied 3. One is a daughter of a former Prime Minister. When I went out for dinner with the ‘administrators’ they’d use their ‘work’ as social fuel. I left after a month, but was meant to stay for 3. Good experience though.
“…read the long comment threads attached to them. They are very revealing. Not just of stereotypes in both directions between Thais and non-Thais that typically lay just under the surface and rarely are expressed so openly.”
The reaction is not so surprising, Thailand being such an open place with such a large flux of foreigners, the most visible often being the dregs of western society, like the big ape-like Farang creature who used to walk down Chiang Rai’s main downtown street a few years ago, in his gym shorts, shirtless with his hairy chest, barefoot, and intoxicated, leering at all the women, most people just laughed….or the French guy who would prance around on his deck overlooking the Maesai border in his bikini underpants in view of all, or the guy who was kicked out of Chiang Rai by the tourist police after attacking people with a Samurai sword…etc, etc
Luckily the thoughts expressed by the Thais in those comments have no expression in physical violence, as one might imagine they would in, let’s say, Iraq, or as they did a century ago in the Boxer Rebellion.
For all the textual or verbal aggression, for the last year since all this political turmoil began, apart from the south, there has been very little of the physical violence that the rest of the world is beset with.
Maybe that’s why the news reports never tell you exactly what the offending verbage exactly was (internet forums, defamation suits, lese majeste) in fear that it will beget even more aggression?
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSometimes, the volunteer work is legitimate, often it’sa bogus project created to get the tourist’s money, sometimes the unqualified tourist actually does profit making work for the so-called NGO. Sometimes even, the tourist volunteers … […]
Read this story about how Thai officials in the US reacted to an advertisement for a Philadelphia restaurant that used an image of the King in 2002. It’s not pretty, and it’s not just the Surayud government.
Let me just post some reports and lets see if the you guys are smart or have been outsmarted again
Mr Lee was also conciliatory about past comments in which he warned Australia would become a “white trash” nation, saying “there are some words sometimes sown in the heat of the argument. You have changed and the Australia I came to in 1965 was a very different Australia.”
We are going to prosper, you are going to prosper. But if I ALLOW YOU TO RUN MY COUNTRY IT WILL SPIRAL DOWNWARDS AND WILL HIT ROCK BOTTOM”
Go figure what that means what it tells of your system.
[…] I thought the guy who isolated Burma was one of the Thirty Comrades with a taste for women and horse racing and a fascination with ideas of sacred kingship. And didn t Burma achieve Least Developed Country status before sanctions were … – more – […]
[…] [ ] elite. Engagement, free movement of people, goods and information is the real threat to the regime, but the tide is already beginning to turn with the US more [ ] – more – […]
[…] : Aristotle and the rhetoric of benevolent despotism, provides a good explanation on the Junta s promotion of Buddhism being a fear byproduct of … – more – […]
More seepage from the tourism sector into the education sector: ***former bar owners who get hired by universities as lecturers***, cases that slip past the HR departments of universities with very high employee turnover, without any sort of tenure for foreign lecturers, disturbing because “bar” in Thailand is often synonymous with “intermediary for prostitution.”
Hopefully the new apparoach to tourism will include ***paying attention to what is actually happening*** .
One of the most disturbing growing trends is ***pay-to-be-a-volunteer tourism***.
On the surface it looks good. Why would altruistic motives ever be questioned?
For example, some expat runs a website out of his Phuket beach flat to sell volunteer experiences around Thailand to tourists.
Sometimes, the volunteer work is legitimate, often it’s a bogus project created to get the tourist’s money, sometimes the unqualified tourist actually does profit making work for the so-called NGO. Sometimes even, the tourist volunteers are sent on contract to teach children in local schools. All without a work permit or work visa!
Why would a tourist pay to work, instead of getting paid to work?
Last week word of a European tourist-volunteer bragging about having sex with his teenage (apparently high school) students, passed through the grapevine in the provincial town I live in.
IMHO The tendency to use tourism as a solution to every problem, including education, not only seems simplistic, a little fishy, but also, in some cases, extremely dangerous.
Maybe they are trying to get more regional tourists with the sufficiency approach. If your Cambodian, touring Thailand can be quite expensive! How gracious of this Mr Majesty!
One day all the parts of the body held a meeting to decide who should become the boss. The brain claimed that it was the smartest so it should be the boss. The eyes said that it does all the seeing so it should be the boss. The ears said it does all the hearing so it should be the boss. The mouth said it does all the talking and eating so it should be the boss. The heart said it pumps the blood that gives life so it should be the boss. The lungs said it does all the breathing that makes life possible so it should be the boss.
And this went on with all the parts of the body shouting and disagreeing as to who should be the boss. Suddenly, while all this argument was going on, they heard a squeak from the bottom. They all stopped arguing and every part of the body fell silent. “What’s that again?” asked the brain.
“What about me? Can I be the boss?” It was the arse hole joining the debate as to who should be the boss.
When all the parts of the body heard this they all fell down laughing. They could not stop laughing. The eyes were watering with laughter. The wax from the ears popped out because of the uncontrollable laughter. The mouth laughed so furiously that it accidentally bit the tongue. The tongue was bleeding profusely but it felt no pain because it was laughing until the throat could no longer produce any sound. This laughter went on for a full ten minutes and the entire body rocked and shaked like it was being hit by the greatest earthquake in history.
But the arse hole did not join in the laughter. It kept very silent. It was very angry and hurt. When all the parts of the body had regained their composure the brain said, “You are just an arse hole. You cannot be the boss. Arse holes can never be the boss.”
When the arse hole heard this it became real mad, hopping mad, mad as hell. It said, “Oh yeah. Then let me show you who the boss is.”
From thereon the arse hole clammed up and refused to open any longer. It shut very tight and would not talk to all the other parts of the body – what the Malays would call merajuk. For many, many days no shit could pass through. After a week the brain started getting very groggy. The eyes became so watery it could no longer see. The heart started beating so softly you could no longer detect its beat. The lungs became so short of breath that oxygen was no longer being sent to the blood. It was now apparent that the entire body was dying.
Finally, all the parts of the body admitted defeat and ceded that the arse hole is the most powerful part of the body and should be made the boss. So they called another meeting and all the parts of the body unanimously agreed to appoint the arse hole as the boss, proving once and for all that all you need to be is an arse hole to become boss.
well, JFL, yeah, Re: google.. I’m just summarizing the sentiments of various corners of cyberspace that I’ve seen. I don’t have an illusion of them being the alternate deity to the ancient one we have in Thailand.
Don’t just blame Surayud and his CNS masters alone. The palace demonstrates its incompetence as well. By openly supporting the coup and playing a major role in rallying the coup forces the palace gambled. They haven’t lost yet, but they look very bad at present.
Part of the reason why the junta and its government are reacting this way is that they have to defend the king and his palace. They are right when they fear that attacks on the king can shake up the whole country. So they must protect the palace.
The palace got the coup it wanted, its military and its government and yet Thailand is a complete mess now. That’s where the real incompetence and failure to understand the world after 1980 lies.
I agree with most of Walker’s posting and the additional points in the comment thread, especially regarding how the junta has opened the monarchy up to greater vulnerability internationally while simultaneously entrenching it domestically, at least in the short-term.
What I am struck by, as others have noted, is the official AND popular attitude of Thais to the internet, its very liberal moral code and their ability, desired or presumed, to regulate the internet and / or manage international opinion. There is an undercurrent of inflamed hostility, righteousnes and even vindictiveness in the pursuit of stamping out these acts of hostility towards the monarchy. This isn’t so surprising, of coure. But comments by Thai politicians and bureaucrats that removing the offending videos is not enough, and that the authors should be pursued and punished is striking to me. Striking in part because either they have no clue how impossible such actions would be or how much grief they would receive, in addition to what has already arrived, should they succeed. Striking also in the sense that they seem to have no idea or little concern with how these comments could provoke others to take such matters into their own hands unofficially.
I would highly suggest that folks not only watch the videos but read the long comment threads attached to them. They are very revealing. Not just of stereotypes in both directions between Thais and non-Thais that typically lay just under the surface and rarely are expressed so openly. But also revealing of how mystified Thais are that the rest of the world simply does not revere their own King as much as they do or why so many others might find treating a man as a ‘god’ absurd or offensive on principle. Also revealing of their limited understanding of the distinction between national and international law and the limited reach of both. Many Thai comments are mystified as to why non-Thais simply can’t respect and follow Thai laws in the name of cultural sensitivity.
And to add to a point Andrew made, the most memorable image of the King might not be its juxtaposition with profanity, but rather one YouTube video slide-show that straightforwardly asserts that the King murdered his brother.
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Sufficiency tourism on the way
Actually Jon, I did that (paid to work) in Nepal. I was naive and it had a lot to do with my mother (haha), but it was the most corrupt thing I’ve ever witnessed first hand. I was seeing kids who’d worked in carpet factories and brothels every day, while the people who ran the organisations lived in 22 room houses and only occupied 3. One is a daughter of a former Prime Minister. When I went out for dinner with the ‘administrators’ they’d use their ‘work’ as social fuel. I left after a month, but was meant to stay for 3. Good experience though.
The regime’s royal ridicule
“…read the long comment threads attached to them. They are very revealing. Not just of stereotypes in both directions between Thais and non-Thais that typically lay just under the surface and rarely are expressed so openly.”
The reaction is not so surprising, Thailand being such an open place with such a large flux of foreigners, the most visible often being the dregs of western society, like the big ape-like Farang creature who used to walk down Chiang Rai’s main downtown street a few years ago, in his gym shorts, shirtless with his hairy chest, barefoot, and intoxicated, leering at all the women, most people just laughed….or the French guy who would prance around on his deck overlooking the Maesai border in his bikini underpants in view of all, or the guy who was kicked out of Chiang Rai by the tourist police after attacking people with a Samurai sword…etc, etc
Luckily the thoughts expressed by the Thais in those comments have no expression in physical violence, as one might imagine they would in, let’s say, Iraq, or as they did a century ago in the Boxer Rebellion.
For all the textual or verbal aggression, for the last year since all this political turmoil began, apart from the south, there has been very little of the physical violence that the rest of the world is beset with.
Maybe that’s why the news reports never tell you exactly what the offending verbage exactly was (internet forums, defamation suits, lese majeste) in fear that it will beget even more aggression?
Sufficiency tourism on the way
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSometimes, the volunteer work is legitimate, often it’sa bogus project created to get the tourist’s money, sometimes the unqualified tourist actually does profit making work for the so-called NGO. Sometimes even, the tourist volunteers … […]
The regime’s royal ridicule
Read this story about how Thai officials in the US reacted to an advertisement for a Philadelphia restaurant that used an image of the King in 2002. It’s not pretty, and it’s not just the Surayud government.
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2616
Lee’s degree broke ANU rules
Let me just post some reports and lets see if the you guys are smart or have been outsmarted again
Mr Lee was also conciliatory about past comments in which he warned Australia would become a “white trash” nation, saying “there are some words sometimes sown in the heat of the argument. You have changed and the Australia I came to in 1965 was a very different Australia.”
We are going to prosper, you are going to prosper. But if I ALLOW YOU TO RUN MY COUNTRY IT WILL SPIRAL DOWNWARDS AND WILL HIT ROCK BOTTOM”
Go figure what that means what it tells of your system.
The Economist on Burma’s pipeline possibilities
[…] I thought the guy who isolated Burma was one of the Thirty Comrades with a taste for women and horse racing and a fascination with ideas of sacred kingship. And didn t Burma achieve Least Developed Country status before sanctions were … – more – […]
Tutu on South Africa’s Burma vote
[…] [ ] elite. Engagement, free movement of people, goods and information is the real threat to the regime, but the tide is already beginning to turn with the US more [ ] – more – […]
“Carrying the Cross”: Christians and Burma
[…] : Aristotle and the rhetoric of benevolent despotism, provides a good explanation on the Junta s promotion of Buddhism being a fear byproduct of … – more – […]
Sufficiency tourism on the way
More seepage from the tourism sector into the education sector: ***former bar owners who get hired by universities as lecturers***, cases that slip past the HR departments of universities with very high employee turnover, without any sort of tenure for foreign lecturers, disturbing because “bar” in Thailand is often synonymous with “intermediary for prostitution.”
Sufficiency tourism on the way
Hopefully the new apparoach to tourism will include ***paying attention to what is actually happening*** .
One of the most disturbing growing trends is ***pay-to-be-a-volunteer tourism***.
On the surface it looks good. Why would altruistic motives ever be questioned?
For example, some expat runs a website out of his Phuket beach flat to sell volunteer experiences around Thailand to tourists.
Sometimes, the volunteer work is legitimate, often it’s a bogus project created to get the tourist’s money, sometimes the unqualified tourist actually does profit making work for the so-called NGO. Sometimes even, the tourist volunteers are sent on contract to teach children in local schools. All without a work permit or work visa!
Why would a tourist pay to work, instead of getting paid to work?
Last week word of a European tourist-volunteer bragging about having sex with his teenage (apparently high school) students, passed through the grapevine in the provincial town I live in.
IMHO The tendency to use tourism as a solution to every problem, including education, not only seems simplistic, a little fishy, but also, in some cases, extremely dangerous.
Offending the mainstream
Thanks for the link JFL!
Sufficiency tourism on the way
Maybe they are trying to get more regional tourists with the sufficiency approach. If your Cambodian, touring Thailand can be quite expensive! How gracious of this Mr Majesty!
Lee’s degree broke ANU rules
One day all the parts of the body held a meeting to decide who should become the boss. The brain claimed that it was the smartest so it should be the boss. The eyes said that it does all the seeing so it should be the boss. The ears said it does all the hearing so it should be the boss. The mouth said it does all the talking and eating so it should be the boss. The heart said it pumps the blood that gives life so it should be the boss. The lungs said it does all the breathing that makes life possible so it should be the boss.
And this went on with all the parts of the body shouting and disagreeing as to who should be the boss. Suddenly, while all this argument was going on, they heard a squeak from the bottom. They all stopped arguing and every part of the body fell silent. “What’s that again?” asked the brain.
“What about me? Can I be the boss?” It was the arse hole joining the debate as to who should be the boss.
When all the parts of the body heard this they all fell down laughing. They could not stop laughing. The eyes were watering with laughter. The wax from the ears popped out because of the uncontrollable laughter. The mouth laughed so furiously that it accidentally bit the tongue. The tongue was bleeding profusely but it felt no pain because it was laughing until the throat could no longer produce any sound. This laughter went on for a full ten minutes and the entire body rocked and shaked like it was being hit by the greatest earthquake in history.
But the arse hole did not join in the laughter. It kept very silent. It was very angry and hurt. When all the parts of the body had regained their composure the brain said, “You are just an arse hole. You cannot be the boss. Arse holes can never be the boss.”
When the arse hole heard this it became real mad, hopping mad, mad as hell. It said, “Oh yeah. Then let me show you who the boss is.”
From thereon the arse hole clammed up and refused to open any longer. It shut very tight and would not talk to all the other parts of the body – what the Malays would call merajuk. For many, many days no shit could pass through. After a week the brain started getting very groggy. The eyes became so watery it could no longer see. The heart started beating so softly you could no longer detect its beat. The lungs became so short of breath that oxygen was no longer being sent to the blood. It was now apparent that the entire body was dying.
Finally, all the parts of the body admitted defeat and ceded that the arse hole is the most powerful part of the body and should be made the boss. So they called another meeting and all the parts of the body unanimously agreed to appoint the arse hole as the boss, proving once and for all that all you need to be is an arse hole to become boss.
Blocked tube
well, JFL, yeah, Re: google.. I’m just summarizing the sentiments of various corners of cyberspace that I’ve seen. I don’t have an illusion of them being the alternate deity to the ancient one we have in Thailand.
The regime’s royal ridicule
Don’t just blame Surayud and his CNS masters alone. The palace demonstrates its incompetence as well. By openly supporting the coup and playing a major role in rallying the coup forces the palace gambled. They haven’t lost yet, but they look very bad at present.
Part of the reason why the junta and its government are reacting this way is that they have to defend the king and his palace. They are right when they fear that attacks on the king can shake up the whole country. So they must protect the palace.
The palace got the coup it wanted, its military and its government and yet Thailand is a complete mess now. That’s where the real incompetence and failure to understand the world after 1980 lies.
The regime’s royal ridicule
I agree with most of Walker’s posting and the additional points in the comment thread, especially regarding how the junta has opened the monarchy up to greater vulnerability internationally while simultaneously entrenching it domestically, at least in the short-term.
What I am struck by, as others have noted, is the official AND popular attitude of Thais to the internet, its very liberal moral code and their ability, desired or presumed, to regulate the internet and / or manage international opinion. There is an undercurrent of inflamed hostility, righteousnes and even vindictiveness in the pursuit of stamping out these acts of hostility towards the monarchy. This isn’t so surprising, of coure. But comments by Thai politicians and bureaucrats that removing the offending videos is not enough, and that the authors should be pursued and punished is striking to me. Striking in part because either they have no clue how impossible such actions would be or how much grief they would receive, in addition to what has already arrived, should they succeed. Striking also in the sense that they seem to have no idea or little concern with how these comments could provoke others to take such matters into their own hands unofficially.
I would highly suggest that folks not only watch the videos but read the long comment threads attached to them. They are very revealing. Not just of stereotypes in both directions between Thais and non-Thais that typically lay just under the surface and rarely are expressed so openly. But also revealing of how mystified Thais are that the rest of the world simply does not revere their own King as much as they do or why so many others might find treating a man as a ‘god’ absurd or offensive on principle. Also revealing of their limited understanding of the distinction between national and international law and the limited reach of both. Many Thai comments are mystified as to why non-Thais simply can’t respect and follow Thai laws in the name of cultural sensitivity.
And to add to a point Andrew made, the most memorable image of the King might not be its juxtaposition with profanity, but rather one YouTube video slide-show that straightforwardly asserts that the King murdered his brother.
The regime’s royal ridicule
[…] Walker over at New Mandala has written an article criticizing the Surayud regime. I think he hits a few home truths here. The […]
The regime’s royal ridicule
Absolutely spot on.
Offending the mainstream
Damian/Paul: Giles is more a reflection of British-Marxist culture on Thai soil than one of Thai civil society.
The regime’s royal ridicule
That’s how all governments define “national security”.
This is my first coup. I’m beginning to think that there’s not going to be a civilian government in Bangkok in the foreseeable future.