Bangkok

The 'rigged election' charge is very similar to the tactic used by the Republicans in the US elections Chuck (remember the Acorn hype?). There will always be some irregularities in any election and it makes a good excuse to put pressure on the winners. There is no doubt that majority of the people support the government and that they would be elected again should there be an immediate election. The problem is that if the Prime Minister were to call an election he might well find the 'rigged election'charge use as an excuse for his party to be banned from taking place in any election as happened before with the Thai Rak Thai party... Thialand has a right-wing establishment which wishes to reverse most of the beneficial changes made by Thaksin Shinawatra (regardless of whether or not he is currupt he did do a lot to help the poor). The right-wing reactionaries were hoping to use PAD as an excuse for yet another army coup. Certainly those shouting "Corruption" loudest are the hypocrites who are most corrupt! The changes to the constitution made by the last coup government have been deemed illegal (for technical reasons) and the right-wing fear the present government will change the constitution again and weaken the power of the elite... As you say - it is a power struggle. As usual the gullible are being used as bullets by the ruthless!

I'm fairly certain that Sondhi is crazy, Chuck :O) He pronounced Thaksin was the best prime minister Thailand had even had when Thaksin helped him write off a billion Baht debt. Later, Sondhi's financial guru was sacked from the board of the bank (that had written off Sondhi's debt - I think it was Krung Bank) for dubious dealings and Sondhi blamed Thaksin. Sondhi turned on Thaksin with a vengence and has since accused him of everything from curruption to wanting to get rid of the King. PAD would be nothing without Sondhi's media propoganda - it was Sondhi who first garnered support for PAD by spreading the false rumour that Thaksin wanted to over-throw the King and claiming that PAD would prevent him! If you've ever watched the ASTV Thai news in English then you will know what hateful rhetoric and ridiculously childish lies Sondhi's media resorts to. It would be laughable if it were not so dispicable! I can't imagine anywhere else that such vile rubbish would be tolerated. I remember one broadcast where they showed film footage of the prime minister droping his secretary off after work and spent a good 10 minutes hinting (some might say alleging) that Somchai was having an adulterous affair. Seems that you can say anything you like on Thai TV... if you're PAD. However, ex prime minister Samak (the one who was sacked for appearing on a TV cooking show) was recently sentenced to 2 years for suggesting on TV that a Bangkok politician had been taking bribes! As you probably noticed PAD have taken to refering to the PM as 'that Vile Murderer' after someone was killed in the earlier conflict between the police and the PAD demonstrators. They have also accused the Prime Minister and most of his government of taking bribes from the Cambodians over the ancient Cambodian temple dispute. Hmmm, perhaps in Thailand it is only PM's that have to watch what they do! Oh, no, it can't be that - I remember now - some red shirts having noticed that PAD could invade anywhere they liked without consequence decided to invade their local TV station to ask them to recant on an allegation that they had been bribed to attend a rally in support of the government. The TV station did recant and the red shirts left. There was no reported violence and those involved were in court and sentenced in a few days - now if they had thought to wear yellow shirts...

Further to my earlier comment as to why the PM is unwilling to risk calling an election :- The Constitution Court is rushing to wrap up dissolution trials against three government coalition parties - the People Power (PPP), Matchimathipataya and Chart Thai parties - and has decided to rule on the cases without hearing witnesses, ordering the defendants to deliver their closing statements on Tuesday, after which an almost immediate ruling is expected... Blatant or what :O)

I've never been fond of Bangkok but I love Phuket. Crystal clear waters and golden beaches. Patong is past its best and over commercialised but the rest of Phuket is still very close to being Paradise... or at least it was until recently. The recent heavy rains have polluted the sea and infested it with sea lice or some such biting pest. One of the world's deadliest creatures the Box Jellyfish have lately been found off shore and the effects of PAD causing fewer tourists has made some of the local merchants fairly desperate. It feels somewhat like the hate from PAD has poisoned not just some of the Thais but also Thailand itself and the Land Of Smiles is smiling no longer. May God save the King and Buddha help the people so that the land of the Thais may smile again!

Always meant to visit Ko Samui but never made it for one reason or another - maybe we will meet there one day if the future is kind to Thailand and to us :O) Noticed this on MSN news today - http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=11431500 Sondhi is fond of saying he is prepared to die for the King but of course he means his PAD proxies... "If they come, we'll not open the door. If they shoot us, we'll shoot them back. We'll die if that makes the country better," PAD leader Sondhi Limthongul told supporters, the most explicit admission yet by the movement that they are armed." If something is not done soon then a lot of the PAD protestors might die for Sondhi - send the women and children home NOW PAD leaders and prove you're not a bunch of total monsters!

Looks like Thailand is headed for civil war! It's generally accepted that the court will disband the present government on Tuesday despite the consequences and then all hell will let loose! The reds and the yellows are massing in various locations ready for what seems likely to be a series of inevitable violent confrontations and I would bet that many of the 'PAD supporter' will turn out to be army people in plain clothes since PAD seems somehow to be gaining numbers while at the same time rapidly losing public support... if elements of the army are involved it would also explain where the PAD arms have come from. I have hoped and prayed that the reds and yellows could remember that above all they are Thais... and find some way to get along, unite and combine into an Orange movement - the sunshine colour of the Buddha and His monks who seems to have been all but forgotten in these dark days!

Buddha and his monks are highly revered in Thailand and if, as happened last year in Myanmar, the monks came out in support of the people that would change everything! Not likely yet though I'm afraid. Maybe things will have to get as bad as they have in Myanmar (Burma) before the monks see the light. Problem is, by then, as in Myanmar, it's usually too late. The present situation has been blatently engineered by those in the Thai 'establishment' who seek to strengthen their grip on the country and remove the power of the vote from those they believe to be too stupid to have a vote (most of the people). These 'elite' have used Sondhi to brainwash a naive section of the population into supporting PAD while at the same time using their power to ensure that the government was powerless to do anything. PAD have recently become deeply unpopular with the people but the élite are still using their power with the media to try and put the blame for all thailand's troubles on the government or Thaksin or the weather or Thaksin, or the global recession or Thaksin... So now they will disband the government and prevent most of its members from standing for 5 years - just as they did with Thai Rak Thai when Thaksin was in power. They will probably be another election in which an even worse govenment will be elected (since the pool of experienced politicians who oppose the elite is constantly dwindling because they keep getting barred from politics). Then, of course, it will all start again with PAD accusing the new government of being a proxy for Thaksin. Makes you wonder why the elite don't just have another coup, choose a ruling junta, and adopt the politics of Myanmar - no, I suppose it wouldn't go down well with the Royalist faction. Maybe later? God save the King may He save His people!

Thaksin was/is democratic he has been demonised as being currupt and I'm fairly sure he has done some shady deals but I don't think he has actually done anything illegal... I expect time will tell. When you take into account the blatant bias of the courts it is difficult to guess who is guilty of a true crime and who is merely guilty of being on the wrong side of the elite. Thaksin upset a lot of powerful people during his time in office and even his decision to make hospitals free (you need only pay for your medication) has caused a lot of bitterness amoung some groups - hence the threat from the doctors that they would not treat any police hurt in their confrontation with PAD. Thakin would probably have done better to keep his head down and say nothing but I can imagine that he felt duty bound to try to aid his erstwhile supporters. I have never hear him speak but I have heard Sondhi. Sondhi (on ASTV) usually comes across as a 'Nazi' type speaker (but then so do a lot of the PAD leaders) full of hate and anger. They usually blame Thaksin for all the world's problems and rivile him so much that you would would think he must be a baby eater or mass murderer - I'm sure they will have accused him of both at some stage. I have never in my whole life seen anything so obviously bad as ASTV's PAD broadcasts (they are on 24 hours a day on several sattelite channels and probably on the radio too). You don't expect to get so much bile on a TV channel and I don't think many other countries would allow such poison to be broadcast... so no surprise at the result - barracades in airports surrounded by damaged vehicles and razorwire with thugs and madmen using brainwashed mothers and their innocent children as shields. Still, they will fail in the end! In the meantime, and that could be quite a while, at least you'll be able to go back if you like Chuck - but I have nailed my colours to the wall and so it's doubtful I'll be welcome :O( There are people I love in Thailand and I will miss them but I write this for them and the millions like them. As Bob sang... Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!

Thinking about Sondhi's rhetoric :- "... We'll die if that makes the country better," PAD leader Sondhi Limthongul told supporters. It occured to me that very many people might think that Sondhi death would immediately make Thailand better. Bearing in mind the secret video footage taken of the Thai PM I wouldn't be surprised to find that Sondhi has a lot of secret video footage and has been using it to maintain support from certain powerful people who would otherwise have withdrawn their support long since!

I notice in the latest news from Bangkok that PAD have decided to abandon Government House in favour of supporting the airport protests. It seems that PAD have provived 6 wheeled trucks, pick-ups and vans to transport its supporters to the airports although many protesters have stated they intend to stay where they are... maybe they don't realise that the TV cameras are leaving too or perhaps they have simply been there so long it seems like home to them now.

I expect some were simply sucked in by their missplaced sense of idealism and it makes you wonder why they never questioned exactly how PAD was going to save Thailand. I suspect a lot more were attracted by the thought of being paid to sit around and look like they were having a good time when the TV camera was pointed in their direction. A fleeting fame of sorts. The rest were just mal-contents and thugs always ready to join anything with the chance of a bit of bovver. Later, I suspect most were simply just carried along by the excitement and feeling of commitment that you get when you're involved with a group that seems to be being persecuted (from their twisted viewpoint). It does make you wonder what sort of mother would drag her children along to suffer the dangers and deprevations of an airport siege... Thai's adore their children so I'm at a loss to explain that!

Thanks for that Chuck! Not really suprising but somehow depressing. Obviously a new PAD scheme to help the poor... rent a kid! Mind you I'm forgetting how desperate the poor can get in Bangkok. For some a 100 Baht (just under 2 quid) is a lot of money.

The Thai Constitution Court ruled today (Tuesday) to disband three coalition parties, People Power, Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya, and banned the three's party's executives (including the Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat) from politics for five years. Strange that PAD have been saying it would all be over by Tuesday - long before the courts announced they were to speed up the process by not hearing evidence from the witnesses. Some thought it would stil take several days for the court to deliberate on its decision while those in the know knew it had been made long since! PAD have vowed to continue their occupation of the airports until the whole cabinet departs - 22 of the 36 are not affected by the party disbandment. No doubt when the get that they will hold out until Sondhi is named the Royal Successor :O)

There is a gigantic image of Buddha sitting on the hilltop above Chalong in Phuket... The recently completed Phra Puttamingmongkol Akenakkiri Buddha is 45 meters high and 25 meters across at the base. Just above eye-level next to a large gong at the base is a sign, in slightly dodgy English... it says "Those who sees Dhamma sees me" essentially 'Those who see the truth see me' Despite the Buddha's huge size I'm certain that many of the people currently pulling the strings in Bangkok couldn't see it if they were stood in front reading the 5'x 10' sign. It is this short sightedness that is causing the constant crises in Bangkok and beyond. PAD (and the shadowy figures who back them) has wrecked the Thai economy, made Thailand something of a laughing stock around the world, brought the Thai judisary into disrepute and worst of all has brought the country close to a civil war. It is all the more short sighted because PAD has demonstrated that it is possible to flout the law and get away with it and that is something which will inevitably come back to haunt who ever wins the present power struggle.

PAD have just announced that it will end all its demonstrations by 10am tomorrow (3am our time). Looks like someone has seen the light!

Cynically, I'm wondering if PAD are just taking a few days off for the King's birthday on Friday and will be back to work next week... Since they seem to be able to take over anywhere they like when ever they like. Seriously, I think they would get a very, very, unpleasant surprise if they did try to revive their protests. I think Sondhi's threat that PAD "...will mobilize people and stage another protest." if they don't like the new government is an empty threat because somebody BIG has finally called time and I reckon only Chamlong is crazy enough to risk another conflict now. As for the new government... well, between them, the 3 coalition parties have lost well over 100 of their 'best' people (banned from politics for 5 years) so it will not be easy to form an effective government - especially in face of the antipathy of the establishment. As for the govenment's new prime minister - let's face it - who would want the job? So why have so many people been banned from politics for 5 years? The court held that although the fraud directly involved People Power's Yongyuth Tiyapairat, Chart Thai's Monthien Songpracha and Matchima Thipataya's Sunthorn Wilawan, the parties are obliged to assume responsibility for the actions of their executives. In other words - one suspected bad apple and the whole barrel gets the boot. The previous Thai Rak Thai party suffered a similar fate and was dissolved on May 30 2007 by the order of the Constitutional Tribunal for violation of election laws. A few high-ranking party members were found to be directly involved in bribing several small parties into competing in constituencies that were bases of the former opposition parties to ensure that minimum turnout rules were met. One hundred and eleven members of the party, including former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, were barred from participating in politics for a five-year period, with only eight out of the 119 charged acquitted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Rak_Thai. It's worth noting that: At the legislative elections on February 6, 2005, the party won 60.7% of the popular vote and 375 out of 500 seats, enlarging the previous absolute majority. In the invalid elections of April 2006, it won 61.6% of the vote and 460 out of 500 seats, the rest remaining vacant due to boycotting of the oppositional parties. This raises 2 points: 1 It is quite evident that Thai Rak Thai would have won a landslide election without cheating so it seems somewhat unfair to dissolve the whole party and ban so many of its people. 2 You will notice that although 8 people were found innocent in the first ruling yesterday's ruling stated that if one executive member of the party was guilty then ALL were guily. Maybe different circumstance? Also, so far as I know only Yongyuth of PPP has actually been convicted and then in an uncontested trial! So it's difficult to see how, or exactly why, the other two parties have suffered too... It would have been nice to hear whaat the witnesses had to say but of course it was decided not to bother with them... makes you wonder why they bothered with a trial at all doesn't it... Reminds me of that old joke - A judge is someone who you tell the verdict and they judge how best to reach it :O)

Can't see how you could ever be clean enough Chuck. It's a bit like Obama being banned from politics for 5 years because of electoral vote rigging via Acorn for whom he had previously worked as a lawyer. The point is that in the US they had the sense to say that since he won by such a big margin that any vote rigging was inconsequecial (mind you I think the Republicans wanted to lose ;o) The point I was trying to make is that surely dissolving a party due to vote rigging should only be an option if it could be proved that somebody else might have won had it been fair. That's not to say that nothing should be done but rather that only those proved to be directly involved should suffer any penalty. The present system is open to too much abuse - it only needs one traitor in the party to get the whole lot banned for 5 years... in fact it seems it only needs the accusation of vote rigging... Anyway, never mind Thailand, not much chance of me being welcome there in the near future... I've found a lovely hotel in Bali at a very competative price but I can't figure out how to get there for less than a grand :o( Any ideas?

Oops, sorry Chuck, did an edit and put the last 2 posts out of sequence. I usually fly Emirates but they don't seem to fly to Bali (I suppose I could get there via Jakarta). Fairly understandably flights to India are very cheap just now at just over 400 quid... in fact Goa is very cheap if you can stand packaged holidays. Anyway, seems I'm stuck in the UK until after Xmas and the fares will probably fall then.

I'm very sad to note that the King of Thailand is suffering from a severe sore throat and so will be unable to make His birthday speech. God save the king may He get better soon and have a very enjoyable and restful birthday on Friday! On a lighter note I see that Thai Airways is suing PAD for 20 Billion Baht for lost revenue resulting from the airport closures they caused. Since ASTV was essentially the communication network that organised and sustained the PAD movement no doubt owner Sondhi will again end up bankrupt and owing billions of Baht. Maybe he will change his mind about Thakin once more and push for a Royal Pardon so that Thaksin can help him once again in writing off his debts :O)

Interesting to note that almost all the office equipment including computers and TV's, personal belongings of the staff and even vans and motorbikes have gone missing from Government House but PAD are denying responsibility. Maybe next time they could invade a bank and deny responsibilty when all the money disappears. Meanwhile Chiang Mai was declared a cold-spell disaster zone after the temperatures dropped below 15 Celsius for three consecutive days. It has recently been rumoured that Thailand may soon see its first ever snow! Coincidentally I have my central heating set at 15C.

You know I'm not surprised that the Land Of Smiles isn't smiling much nowadays. For a long time I've maintained the belief that tourism is not the blessing it seems to be. Hundreds of thousands of miserable, lemon suckers, arrive in Thailand - suitcases full of angst, anger and paranoia and trail around paradise slowly releasing their poison... I've often said that one of the rules of entry should be a smile test and all those who fail should be sent back to spit wasps in their own country. Perhaps Thailand should just have a warming place where people have to wait until the sunshine melts their icy dispossitions before they are allowed to continue on - perhaps Pattaya :O)

I see 57 peole were arrested in Stansted for attempting a PAD style invasion of the airport - as Punch would say "That's the way to do it."... mind you I agree something has to be done about Climate Change but I'm not sure Plane Stupid is the best way forward or if they're really just Plain Stupid. In Thai Ahbisit sounds quite like 'opposite' and I thought my girlfriend was trying to tell me he was leader of the opposition (which I think he actually was) - I judged him a careerist but maybe hastily... it will be interesting to see if he can hold it all together! I ought to say that I feel that recent Thai court decisions have made a mockery of the Thai political system with all the important politicians being careful to avoid positions in which they would be banned in the next round of legal idiocy!

Ah well, I might as well go out with a bang rather than a whimper... I find it disgraceful that despite (and maybe because of) all that PAD have done to ruin they still have such a strong influence of Thai politics. It's a bit like 'Do what we say or we'll return and set fire to Bangkok'. I notice the police are reluctant to charge 12 of the PAD leaders with inciting terrorism - probably because they know that PAD's backers will get it thrown out of court. Without the King I'm sure the 'elite' would force another coup and introduce a 'new politics' in which the people had very little say - a bit like it really is now but without the facade of democracy! I mean why waste so much time, money and effort having elections if you're simply going to over-ride the will of the people and dissolve all the parties you don't approve of?

I meant to post this yesterday in response to Chucks ''New Politics'' but never got around to it : *Yes, it's NEW Politics, PAD People's Alliance for Deception, Power To The Protestors :O) How will their New Politics benefit the people? Why don't the just be honest and call themselves the We Hate All Thaksin Supporters? WHATS the problem :O) Reminds me of another old saying... Only fools keep pad dogs for mad dogs bite friends as easily as enemies and once they have tasted blood they always want more!* However, futher thought about how well organised and supplied PAD were (particularly in the airports) and how similar they were to a military organisation rather than a simple mob made me wonder... Although most of the main Thai media seem to have been behind PAD and exagerating their popularity many of the actual activists seemed more like military than civilians - could it be because that's what they were? I found this old report from the BBC(Dec 3) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7762806.stm When you think about it makes you wonder if the army wouldn't step in because they would be confronting their own. Clever to fool everyone into thinking they were remaining neutral when in fact they were the backbone of PAD. So is it really just another army coup in disguise? Recent news from the National Security Council offices (based in Government House) reveal that most of the server disks containing "Secret Files" had been stolen and vital files had been deleted from the remainder. Now why would simple protesters want to do that? As for the next PM - Since feeling is very strong amoungst many of the people who are resorting to throwing shit at the houses of politicians who are rumoured to be defecting to Ahbisit (who leant too much toward PAD to be seen as neutral) I think it would be impossible for him to form a 'Unity' government and that is undoubtably what Thailand needs now! I notice that this week's edition of The Economist has been banned (technically the distributors have agreed not to import it) claiming it "risks insulting the monarchy." Thailand has the strictest lese majeste law in the world. I haven't read it so I can't comment... but I can say that lese majeste is used to protect a whole range of people who hide behind the King - such as the courts - and I wonder if it is really the King that is being 'insulted' or simply those who hide in His shadow claiming their words as His.

Just back from taking my virus for a walk Chuck and I'll follow your link after I post this. The reason I want to post immediately is I often lose my Internt connection in the afternoon. Being a bit off colour has made me a bit slow recently and it wasn't until I was on my walk that it occured to me that National Security had been compromised by PAD terrorists and the "establishment" knew it because the security guards had been released after a PAD interogation! http://www.bangkokpost.com/091208_News/09Dec2008_news05.php "Therdthai Sri-uppra, director of the NSC's IT centre, said the server hard disks in the national crisis management centre contained no data." I read a slightly different article that stated that the disks had been wiped - a minor difference but crucial. There are other differences like "Mr Therdthai said confidential information regarding national security was kept separately." Oh, okay then, where? Has that disappeared too? Now, what is the job of the judicary and the armed forces if it is not to ensure the security of the Nation? So, knowing that the National Security Centre in Government House had been invaded by terrorists what did they do?"... Well, the courts ruled that the Government should not attempt to clear Government House and the army said "Nothing to do with us mate - we're staying neutral!" So if the "establishment" doesn't care about National Security what is it do they care about??? Here's a hint... Speaking at a seminar Gen Boonsrang Niampradit blamed 3 charter provisions as the root cause of all political maladies. He said they only bring about parliamentary dictatorship and a TYRANNY BY MAJORITY! Anyone noticed it lately? Meanwhile the loss to Tourism is expected to be around 4 Billon dollars (130 Billion Baht).

Having read the Economist piece I'm feeling very depressed. However, whatever the truth, it seems likely that either the 'powers that be' - 1, Were willing to let a gang of unknown people roam free in the National Security Centre with complete, unrestricted access to all the sensitive security information kept there and do nothing about it! or 2, Knew exactly who it was that had broken into the National Security Centre because it was the plan from the outset. Military personnel were part of the PAD protest from the beginning and used mostly paid 'extras' to act as a front for the cameras while they took important information and destroyed the rest. If it was option number 2 then you have to wonder just what it was that they were so eager to get their hands on and why! In the end, however you cut it, it is ever more obvious that there is deep corruption among the very people who have been shouting loudest. As usual the hypocrites pay lip service to King and country while they honour neither. You don't save a country with lies and deceit. You can't build anything good on to rotten foundations and hope it will stand. Never mind a new government what Thailand needs is new elite... Generals who can be trusted to speak the truth and protect the people, judges who put justice above career and privilege and intellectuals who respect the people rather than dismissing them as too stupid to know what they want.

:o) I'm sure the money would be welcomed. Most won't look a gift mah in the mouth. Interesting that the suggested sum for the people of the NE is roughly the same as the estimate for losses to the tourist industry due to PAD. Paying people a bit more for their crops would be very popular as there has been a lot of poor harvest due to the recent floods. Won't help the poor blighters who are going under in the tourist resorts though. Mind you a lot of them seem to be immigrants so maybe they can't vote :O)

One can only hope. Food is set to be the new oil in more ways than one. Climate Change is affecting food production around the world and even in countries where few have ever had a hungry day life must change. Thailand is the world's biggest rice producer and has started to expand its corn crops recently. A lot of Thailand could grow more rice - Bangkok grows 3 crops a year because it is built around a river but other places rely on their 'rainy seasons'. If all the money wasted on PAD had been used to build dams and improve irrigation around Thailand then its food production would have been greatly increased... instead all that has been achieved is a reduction in tourism which the Global Economic Crisis would probably have achieved without PAD's lunacy. As I see it PAD's backers still have not achieved what they want and if Ahbist does manage to become the new Thaksin he will probably suffer a similar fate. I ought to mention I would watch PAD News (in English) of a morning (as the hotel didn't have any other channel with "news"). It was usually presented by 2 girls (who obviously had a score to settle with the government and one 'I nick-named the mouthy girl' was banging on about how disgusting it was that the government were trying to change the Constitution. She started proclaiming that changing the Constitution was a terrible idea, that it was fine as it was, and that the government were criminals for wanting to change it. Embarrassed, her co-presenter (who actually had the odd functioning brain cell) interupted to say "Well, actually we want to change the Constitution... but not just yet." Interesting to note the murder of a suspected PAD guard whose body was found in an abandoned cargo building, where PAD guards were known to go for a rest, wrapped inside a plastic bag. It is thought he died about a week ago and was probably killed by other guards... makes you wonder what he knew!

On a different subject. Have you heard the rumour that Mugabee has a huge stock pile of WMD Chuck? No, well, of course I'm just making it up in the hope that it might make someone instigate a regime change. I would have said that there were reports of a discovery of huge oil reserves but oil doesn't seem to have the pulling power it once had.

I think this thread is in danger of becoming the Mykle and Chuck blog and this should be the last post. In Thailand Buddhism is not identical to the Indian Buddhism from where it took its root. Thai Buddhism has a lot of Chinese influences and so incorporates quite a lot of Taoism and there is also some Hindu influences especially in the NE. The upshot of all these influences is a more pragmatic religion which allows those who want to search for Enlightenment to follow the ideal Buddhist teachings while allowing others to follow a path more influenced by the world they live in and best to deal with practical problems. Whereas Buddhism would probably not condone with playing along with ‘evil’ masters in order to influence them for the good Taoism would almost demand it... for it strives for balance. It could be argued that Blair played such a role with Bush – at least, evidently, talking him out of bombing Al Jazeera . The problem with playing such roles is that often no-one but the player knows exactly what he hopes to achieve. It may well be that like the Mage he sees no sides - just people who are too confused to see that they want the same thing. Huge waves hitting the side of the mountain and bouncing back – like reflections - to oppose themselves... reduce the waves and you reduce their opposition. So, maybe oil on troubled water will help but the mountain has to adapt so that the face it presents to the water is not so hard and uncompromising... for in the end the water always erodes the mountain and better to have charming bays than dangerous cliffs!