That makes two of us, toch. I mean the hypocrisy and double standards bit as well as “a moon that shines only inside the hollow of a bamboo” compared with the Lady bit.
Endless ironies, huh? Perhaps they are only outwardly so. From Burma to the east have we not always been rather like that towards Indians and blacks? I am bound to say however that it’s quite different from white racism in the sense that it in normal circumstances exhibits no nasty kind of discrimination or agression but mainly concerns intermarriage which interestingly is becoming a rare thing in white societies. Everyone is entitled to complain about racism.
You are probably kidding yourself. It seems to me unlikely that ingrained attitudes in the RTP will have changed in the last 20 weeks, particularly as there has been no change in their abysmal wage structure. If the police were out in force on your route today, could it just be that they saw am opportunity to pocket some cash? If I sound cynical it is just that I have lived in Thailand long enough to know how they crumble their cookies!
What you have written is completely inaccurate and misinformed. As a linguist, I can tell you that the term “El/Eloh” occurs in the Hebrew bible approximately 200 times and “Elohim” occurs almost 2,500 times. Secondly, when “Adonai” is used, it is used as a euphemistic pronunciation of “YHWH” as a consequence of the deep cultural taboos surrounding the act of speaking that name.
Secondly, to claim that Hebrew predates Arabic, much less that Aramaic predates them both, is nonsense. We have glottochronologic, as well as written evidence, to suggest that Ancient Northern Arabic was contemporary to Aramaic, which first split off from Phoenician in the 8th century BCE. While Aramaic was certainly the native tongue of Jesus, as Abraham flourished approximately 1,200 years before the existence of the Aramaic language, we can guess that his native tongue was probably some dialect of Assyrian.
I’m left with the enduring image of Lolitas esconsed on his porch complete with pith helmet in an idyllic isaan village as the natives queue for advice and pearls of wisdom from the great white bwana. Straight out of a Somerset Maugham short story. Spare me.
All religious texts are subject to interpretation. There are violent passages in the Torah and the Bible as well. As it says in the Quran:
“If anyone secretly entices you – even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend – saying, ‘Let us go worship other gods’ . . . you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God.”
Oh, wait, that’s the Bible. (Deuteronomy 13:6-10)
Irony of ironies: the Believers – Jews, Christians and Muslims — all worship the one god of Abraham.
People are imperfect and often are swayed by cultural and political motivation however skewed those motivations are.
Religion tends to be always a good prop for evil-doers (politicians).
As my grandfather would say: *Son, don’t mock anyone’s religion, for they’re all trying to go to heaven.*
I would point out that love of the King is inculcated from an early age via school and media. He is a King not a democrat and previous actions have usually been in support of the elite which he is the titular head of. Interesting that the coherent posts are anti coup and others incoherent and ad hominem.
Mate if you believe a bunch of foreigners living in villages in isaan or propping up bars in Bangkok Pattaya or Phuket contribute 5% of GDP then it speaks volumes for your understanding of Thailand and the real issues here.
I am a Westerner in Thailand , and my Wife comes from a Maha Sarakham village.
I travelled up by car today from Bangkok, and the Police were out in force .
A crazy Thai driver in a pick up truck passed me on the road , and he had no licence plate number. Further up the road I saw the Police writing out a citation for him.
There were seven Police stops on the road from Bangkok to Maha Sarakham. tell me that that would have occurred under the Thaksin regime.
Never before have I see the Police with the prescription books and the fine to be imposed. I saw before the casual self serving Police, and now I am seeing a reforming Police.
I have implied that people who do not live in Thailand, do not see what is happening. I believe this is true. Things are changing everywhere. I spend a lot of my time in Isaan, and the village. I do not speak Thai, but I get the feedback that people have a sense of security,now. It is true that the Government has continued the non viable pay out scheme, but the rice problem , and a shift to new Agriculture will take some time.
Long term Westerners here make up about 5% of the Economy [ I think, from reading]. Our attitudes and our views are spread through our wives and the village, and often when it comes to the crunch it is us the Villagers come to. There is no chest thumping, I put money into this economy, and goodness.
It is not an intellectual impasse Andrew, you are utterly defeated, Thais love rules and regulation . I will come back to the Poster’s synposis. I think John Blaxland got it about right. Admittately he doesn’t live here, but neither do many of you others, your redshirts
welded on your chests
w
“Eloh” is not in Jewish prayer books, Adonai is and Adonai and Allah are unrelated etymologically. In any case, Hebrew PREDATES Arabic, and is derived from Aramaic, now only spoken by a small number of Syrian and Iraqi Christians, but the likely language spoken by Abraham (born in Ur) and by Jesus (born in Nazareth).
It’s complicated, but let me make some easy remarks:
1. Marx didn’t talk about race. Hitler did.
2. Nowadays, race and ethnicity play a much bigger role in the US than even in Germany, which is ironic.
3. Asians in general are quite obsessed about physical racial characteristics and tend to look down upon darker-skinned people (even black Americans) which is again ironic, since Asians like to complain about the white people being racist against them.
4. I am a scientist and a free-thinker, so I am not a follower of any particular political ideology, but I find hypocrisy and double-standards despicable. If one is evil or corrupt or racist at least one should be be honest about it, but as you said the real world is not like that and that’s why I can only write comments but I cannot become a human rights icon and a popular politician Lady Suu Kyi!
No doubt abut that because it was exactly what they say in Yes Prime Minister. But it the the job or cheaters and liars to d their dirty work, and it is the incumbent upon the “victims” how they respond to it. With knowledge, resolute-ness, dignity and courage. Your Burmese (all in the country) have been found to be lacking in all of those unfortunately. And accordingly will now soon pay through their butts, literally.
If anyone want to refute that show up Burmese with knowledge, dignity, courage and resolution.
I’m writing from Hong Kong, during the student unrests (Oct 8 2014). The ‘west’ assumes that a country’s standing in terms of civilization is determined by how pure it’s democracy is (amongst other parameters, obviously).
One-party-states such as Singapore (the more accepted classification is an illiberal democracy)don’t fit this idealistic picture.
How come Singapore is corruption-free (highest in Asia, top 10 in the world) while press freedom wise it is only ranked 140th out of 167 countries (2005 Reporters Without Borders).
Hong Kong is enjoying relative freedom under 1 country 2 systems. Certainly more freedom than Singaporeans are enjoying. Than why do we see students blocking our streets wearing Tshirts stating; FREEDOM NOW while in Singapore you get verbally abused if you even suggest limited freedoms over there?
The point I am trying to make is this; Democracy may eventually not work for China, for Hong Kong. After all, people in Singapore have been happy with their leaders, accepting limited freedom in return for prosperity and stability.
FYI: I am a European having lived in Hong Kong for 20 years now.
Not sure what you mean by extreme left, toch. Left libertarian more like, but running a country involves knowing the numbers, ethnicity perhaps arguably less relevant in immigrant nations like the US. How many of them do we have? Mainly former Anglo-Saxon colonies.
Hispanic immigration nonetheless matters in the southern states of the US (payback time perhaps for grabbing Texas from Mexico), Australia too with its newcomers especially the coloured ones, even the old imperial states in Europe with the new white Slavic immigration, Muslim Albanians included.
Since we do not live in a Left libertarian utopia notwithstanding Noam Chomsky whom I do admire, territorial ambitions hand in hand with proselytizing doth not make for a harmonious union, federal or whatever, and I am sure Chomsky knows only too well from long experience analysing the Middle East.
Yes, you’re probably right about the separation of church and state even if such expressions as God Save America, the Bible Belt or the Tory Party in prayer and international Jewry or Zionists indicate not an altogether clean break. Fundamentalism whilst one religion gets particular notoriety indulging in is by no means a monopoly of the said religion, although I am bound to say others have tended to emerge as a backlash to it. There’s no condoning this sort of tit for tat, but it does get into a vicious circle that is well nigh impossible to break.
Dare I say your own Sinophobia is a case in point about race and ethnicity. You don’t want to know the rising numbers of Chinese immigration into Burma? Not even of the Kokang Chinese within our borders?
I think the better question is, “Is Elohim and Allah the same?” That actually gets to the roots of words that are used in both sacred texts. Especially when remembering that “im” in Hebrew is an honorific plural. That being said, we get down to the real issue of whether Eloh and Allah are the same. Etymologically, historically, and in common usage, the answer is yes.
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Thai Police: Intent to reform?
Yea right,
The police force were clean and not corrupt before Thaksin,but Thaksin usurped the whole force and corrupted them. Poor innocent Buddhist police!
Hello!, please ….readers here are not really “Yellow flaggies” or poor farmers!
Forced disappearance in Southeast Asia
I’m sure Hongkad would be more than happy to talk to anyone interested in his family.
Thai Police: Intent to reform?
More likely you were seeing a police state under a military dictatorship.
Thailand’s Prayuth: Not just another coup-maker
I guess aitch it’s because it’s actually quite difficult to mount a rational coherent argument in defence of the indefensible.
Rohingya and national identities in Burma
That makes two of us, toch. I mean the hypocrisy and double standards bit as well as “a moon that shines only inside the hollow of a bamboo” compared with the Lady bit.
Endless ironies, huh? Perhaps they are only outwardly so. From Burma to the east have we not always been rather like that towards Indians and blacks? I am bound to say however that it’s quite different from white racism in the sense that it in normal circumstances exhibits no nasty kind of discrimination or agression but mainly concerns intermarriage which interestingly is becoming a rare thing in white societies. Everyone is entitled to complain about racism.
Thai Police: Intent to reform?
You are probably kidding yourself. It seems to me unlikely that ingrained attitudes in the RTP will have changed in the last 20 weeks, particularly as there has been no change in their abysmal wage structure. If the police were out in force on your route today, could it just be that they saw am opportunity to pocket some cash? If I sound cynical it is just that I have lived in Thailand long enough to know how they crumble their cookies!
Islam, a religion of peace
Sorry Monique,
What you have written is completely inaccurate and misinformed. As a linguist, I can tell you that the term “El/Eloh” occurs in the Hebrew bible approximately 200 times and “Elohim” occurs almost 2,500 times. Secondly, when “Adonai” is used, it is used as a euphemistic pronunciation of “YHWH” as a consequence of the deep cultural taboos surrounding the act of speaking that name.
Secondly, to claim that Hebrew predates Arabic, much less that Aramaic predates them both, is nonsense. We have glottochronologic, as well as written evidence, to suggest that Ancient Northern Arabic was contemporary to Aramaic, which first split off from Phoenician in the 8th century BCE. While Aramaic was certainly the native tongue of Jesus, as Abraham flourished approximately 1,200 years before the existence of the Aramaic language, we can guess that his native tongue was probably some dialect of Assyrian.
Thailand’s Prayuth: Not just another coup-maker
I’m left with the enduring image of Lolitas esconsed on his porch complete with pith helmet in an idyllic isaan village as the natives queue for advice and pearls of wisdom from the great white bwana. Straight out of a Somerset Maugham short story. Spare me.
Islam, a religion of peace
All religious texts are subject to interpretation. There are violent passages in the Torah and the Bible as well. As it says in the Quran:
“If anyone secretly entices you – even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend – saying, ‘Let us go worship other gods’ . . . you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God.”
Oh, wait, that’s the Bible. (Deuteronomy 13:6-10)
Irony of ironies: the Believers – Jews, Christians and Muslims — all worship the one god of Abraham.
People are imperfect and often are swayed by cultural and political motivation however skewed those motivations are.
Religion tends to be always a good prop for evil-doers (politicians).
As my grandfather would say: *Son, don’t mock anyone’s religion, for they’re all trying to go to heaven.*
Thailand’s Prayuth: Not just another coup-maker
I would point out that love of the King is inculcated from an early age via school and media. He is a King not a democrat and previous actions have usually been in support of the elite which he is the titular head of. Interesting that the coherent posts are anti coup and others incoherent and ad hominem.
Thailand’s Prayuth: Not just another coup-maker
Mate if you believe a bunch of foreigners living in villages in isaan or propping up bars in Bangkok Pattaya or Phuket contribute 5% of GDP then it speaks volumes for your understanding of Thailand and the real issues here.
Thai Police: Intent to reform?
I am a Westerner in Thailand , and my Wife comes from a Maha Sarakham village.
I travelled up by car today from Bangkok, and the Police were out in force .
A crazy Thai driver in a pick up truck passed me on the road , and he had no licence plate number. Further up the road I saw the Police writing out a citation for him.
There were seven Police stops on the road from Bangkok to Maha Sarakham. tell me that that would have occurred under the Thaksin regime.
Never before have I see the Police with the prescription books and the fine to be imposed. I saw before the casual self serving Police, and now I am seeing a reforming Police.
Thailand’s Prayuth: Not just another coup-maker
I have implied that people who do not live in Thailand, do not see what is happening. I believe this is true. Things are changing everywhere. I spend a lot of my time in Isaan, and the village. I do not speak Thai, but I get the feedback that people have a sense of security,now. It is true that the Government has continued the non viable pay out scheme, but the rice problem , and a shift to new Agriculture will take some time.
Long term Westerners here make up about 5% of the Economy [ I think, from reading]. Our attitudes and our views are spread through our wives and the village, and often when it comes to the crunch it is us the Villagers come to. There is no chest thumping, I put money into this economy, and goodness.
It is not an intellectual impasse Andrew, you are utterly defeated, Thais love rules and regulation . I will come back to the Poster’s synposis. I think John Blaxland got it about right. Admittately he doesn’t live here, but neither do many of you others, your redshirts
welded on your chests
w
Islam, a religion of peace
Sorry Jason,
“Eloh” is not in Jewish prayer books, Adonai is and Adonai and Allah are unrelated etymologically. In any case, Hebrew PREDATES Arabic, and is derived from Aramaic, now only spoken by a small number of Syrian and Iraqi Christians, but the likely language spoken by Abraham (born in Ur) and by Jesus (born in Nazareth).
Rohingya and national identities in Burma
It’s complicated, but let me make some easy remarks:
1. Marx didn’t talk about race. Hitler did.
2. Nowadays, race and ethnicity play a much bigger role in the US than even in Germany, which is ironic.
3. Asians in general are quite obsessed about physical racial characteristics and tend to look down upon darker-skinned people (even black Americans) which is again ironic, since Asians like to complain about the white people being racist against them.
4. I am a scientist and a free-thinker, so I am not a follower of any particular political ideology, but I find hypocrisy and double-standards despicable. If one is evil or corrupt or racist at least one should be be honest about it, but as you said the real world is not like that and that’s why I can only write comments but I cannot become a human rights icon and a popular politician Lady Suu Kyi!
Thailand’s Prayuth: Not just another coup-maker
So here is a suggestion – can you provide some new ideas to help us move beyond our intellectual. Impasse?
Rohingya and national identities in Burma
No doubt abut that because it was exactly what they say in Yes Prime Minister. But it the the job or cheaters and liars to d their dirty work, and it is the incumbent upon the “victims” how they respond to it. With knowledge, resolute-ness, dignity and courage. Your Burmese (all in the country) have been found to be lacking in all of those unfortunately. And accordingly will now soon pay through their butts, literally.
If anyone want to refute that show up Burmese with knowledge, dignity, courage and resolution.
Review of One Man’s View of the World
I’m writing from Hong Kong, during the student unrests (Oct 8 2014). The ‘west’ assumes that a country’s standing in terms of civilization is determined by how pure it’s democracy is (amongst other parameters, obviously).
One-party-states such as Singapore (the more accepted classification is an illiberal democracy)don’t fit this idealistic picture.
How come Singapore is corruption-free (highest in Asia, top 10 in the world) while press freedom wise it is only ranked 140th out of 167 countries (2005 Reporters Without Borders).
Hong Kong is enjoying relative freedom under 1 country 2 systems. Certainly more freedom than Singaporeans are enjoying. Than why do we see students blocking our streets wearing Tshirts stating; FREEDOM NOW while in Singapore you get verbally abused if you even suggest limited freedoms over there?
The point I am trying to make is this; Democracy may eventually not work for China, for Hong Kong. After all, people in Singapore have been happy with their leaders, accepting limited freedom in return for prosperity and stability.
FYI: I am a European having lived in Hong Kong for 20 years now.
Rohingya and national identities in Burma
Not sure what you mean by extreme left, toch. Left libertarian more like, but running a country involves knowing the numbers, ethnicity perhaps arguably less relevant in immigrant nations like the US. How many of them do we have? Mainly former Anglo-Saxon colonies.
Hispanic immigration nonetheless matters in the southern states of the US (payback time perhaps for grabbing Texas from Mexico), Australia too with its newcomers especially the coloured ones, even the old imperial states in Europe with the new white Slavic immigration, Muslim Albanians included.
Since we do not live in a Left libertarian utopia notwithstanding Noam Chomsky whom I do admire, territorial ambitions hand in hand with proselytizing doth not make for a harmonious union, federal or whatever, and I am sure Chomsky knows only too well from long experience analysing the Middle East.
Yes, you’re probably right about the separation of church and state even if such expressions as God Save America, the Bible Belt or the Tory Party in prayer and international Jewry or Zionists indicate not an altogether clean break. Fundamentalism whilst one religion gets particular notoriety indulging in is by no means a monopoly of the said religion, although I am bound to say others have tended to emerge as a backlash to it. There’s no condoning this sort of tit for tat, but it does get into a vicious circle that is well nigh impossible to break.
Dare I say your own Sinophobia is a case in point about race and ethnicity. You don’t want to know the rising numbers of Chinese immigration into Burma? Not even of the Kokang Chinese within our borders?
Islam, a religion of peace
I think the better question is, “Is Elohim and Allah the same?” That actually gets to the roots of words that are used in both sacred texts. Especially when remembering that “im” in Hebrew is an honorific plural. That being said, we get down to the real issue of whether Eloh and Allah are the same. Etymologically, historically, and in common usage, the answer is yes.