The Land Of Smiles

It's quite possible that he does Chuck. However, the Abhisit PR boys can bend the truth so much that it forms a circle :O) Lovely example today - The Red protestor with Swine Flu... is actually a volunteer of the Interior Ministry from Phetchaburi who was sent to the Bangkok rally site to help security officials monitor the situation :o) The media haven't been in a great rush to retract the origanal story because it is obviously going to put people off joining the rally if they fear they might catch Swine Flu! These same people are forever spreading rumours, purporting to be reports - about what Thaksin has said and where he was yesterday and where he is today - which have later proved to be absolute nonsense.

Speaking of Hung Sen I went for a trip to Cambodia to see what the people thought of him, Sam Rainsy and Thaksin. Well, actually I went to visit the Angkor temples but I was loathe to sacrifice such a good link for the sake of a mere detail ;O) I still not familiar with Facebook but maybe you will be able to browse some of the pics I took while I was in Siem Reap (which I loved). Not too fond of Phnom Penh, but then I don’t really like cities, let alone capitols. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17478&id=100000091408668 Oh, yes, Sam Rainsy didn’t seem to be much of, if any, opposition to Hun Sen and few had an opinion on Thaksin. Just more hype from the Bangkok rumour mongers I expect it was designed to attempt to stop Abhisit from looking like a total twerp after PAD ordered him to make a big fuss about Thaksin’s appointment as an economic advisor to Cambodia. The link works for me but it might not for you - especially if you're not a member :)

If you can access the pics - no.7 is of a Cambodian People's party building of which there seem to hundreds between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh - I only saw one Sam Rainsy.

I think he probably gets most of it from the temples of Siem Reap... a real gold mine. I can't remember what it cost me but it wasn't cheap although you could buy a 3 day pass for the same price as 2 x 1 day passes... and it saved you from queing for half an hour again. The tuktuks were reasonably cheap though, you could get one for about $15 a day... a tenner. Well worth it because not only can it be a fairly long walk just to get to the sites but it is very hot and the air is dry and dusty. Even now, when I look at the pics of these ancient, mainly Hindu, temples, I can still smell the scent of decay... old, old stone slowly crumbling into fine dust and hanging in the air like a thethered ghost unable to escape its past. I much preferred the modern Siem Reap to the past as you will probably notice if you ever see the pics... the first 40 or so are before I went to Angkor. Since it covers such a huge area they try to get everyone on the way in but there are random checks at most of the sites to make sure you have a valid pass.

Oops, sorry Chuck, I edited my earlier post while you were posting and got out of sync. Well the temples won't have changed much in 15 years but a lot else has I suspect - especially the roads. Did everything cost a dollar then too? Small tribes of mostly women and children trying to flog you anything from chilled water or packs of postcards to Cambodian T-shirts and locally made musical instruments.

It's to ponder the stepping between two worlds Chuck... the escalator thing - as for me, I'm simply forgetful

That’s mighty kind of you Chuck. I’ve been manfully struggling to resist the temptation to ask you about paying off the bandits. As usual I have eventually succumbed - so is there any chance of a bit of background on the bandit business?

Yes, there are still a lot of situations in Asia in which payment is the better part of valour… Fortunately the payments are usually very reasonable - under the circumstances - although occasionally a strong sense of indignation can make the process a trifle less agreeable. Meanwhile, back in Bangkok I notice that stupidity is still the most common attribute of the rightwing… the Abhisit PR machine has decided to frighten members of the public who might be thinking of joining the Red Rally with dire warnings of TB and a new flu epidemic… “The Public Health Ministry has reported 512 new cases of influenza A in the past week. One person - a 58-year-old man, has died from the virus.” Well, that will encourage tourism then won’t it. With Songkran just around the corner it’s very brave of them to let the world know that Bangkok is a death-trap :O) No doubt the government will blame the resulting drop in the expected number of tourists on the reds. Mind you, it’s not really surprising since the army chief who put Abhisit in power as PM (and was a co-leader of the coup that removed Thaksin) refused to believe that the GT200 bomb detectors didn’t work in spite of his own PM telling him so. Even when someone summed up enough courage to saw one in half and find there was nothing inside he refused to believe that the GT200 didn’t work. Still, maybe he’s not as dim as we might be led to believe since most of the suspects that his army have thrown in jail were ‘detected’ by this amazing magicwand machine which, in the hands of a skilled operator, could be relied upon to point to anything it was required to. It has been suggested that Anupong might appear as a witness for the defence should the manufacturer ever be taken to court. No doubt he would do an impressive job as always. He would bring his men with him. “There are only here to keep the peace and protect you from harm.” he would tell the judges and they would suddenly realise what an intelligent man he really is. NB Very recently Abhisit complained that the English government had banned sales of the GT200 in Afghanistan and Iraq but not in Thailand... as I've pointed out elsewhere with Anupong stauchly defending the device it would have been very difficult to do more than had already been done by the BBC with pieces like this in their world news - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8481774.stm

A lot depends on what happens in the next few days I would say Chuck. I notice that the Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul (leader of the Bhumjaithai party) said today that his party had no reason to change sides but that he had not heard the opposition’s (Puea Thai's) conditions yet… Many of the Democrat's partners want changes to the coup inspired constitution but the army don't want to allow any because they fear that they may lose their immunity from prosecution for the coup and some of the more obvious weapons against Democracy like being able to ban whole swathes of their political enemies from politics for FIVE years if they feel the need. So, Abhisit has to keep pretending that there will be changes but not quite yet - while he tries to get enough Democrats to be able to do without his partners. It's worth noticing that the Democrats stand accused of electorial corruption for accepting a huge donation many times the limit of that allowed by law - essentially a 'sponsor' buying influence - which if proved would mean that Abhisit and most of his party would be banned from politics for FIVE years. Unaccountably, the case never seems to get to court - a bit like PAD and their airport antics... it seems everybody is too busy having fun to find time to go to court! Yet all these things are ticking time bombs and even if Thaksin's appeal is denied so that they can get their greedy hands on his money at last - it may well be they don't get much chance to spend it. Interestingly, the main thrust of the argument against Thaksin was that he made so much money so quickly that he must have been corrupt... maybe Mexico will be the next to try and get some money back from the man who made his fortune through their telecom industry - after all, he's the world's richest man! Many, many thanks to my friend Gaan for sending me these great links! http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15718981 http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0322/Biased-TV-stations...

Well Sean, the idea might have been more appealing if it hadn't been presented as neccesary because the majority of people were too stupid to know what was good for them. The fact that it was presented to the world by the People's Alliance for Democracy when in fact it was not really an alliance by or for the people or even true democracy didn't help. Most people other than the 'elite' who would benefit from it saw it as just another means to attack Thaksin and his supporters...

I'll settle for that Sean. If we can compromise why can't they? :O)

Things seem to be hotting up in Bangkok! This report from Reuters sets the scene... but the latest news is that the troops have been ordered to reverse their decision to leave Government House. It's worrying! http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62Q0C120100327

Good news! TV reports have said that Red protestors have agreed not to storm the Government House compound and will return to their rally site. Interestingly, when the Red leaning government - which was soon to be dissolved by the courts for alleged voting irregularities by one of its members - tried to get rid of supporters of the PAD who were occupying the very same compound. I seem to remember that the courts ruled that they could not as it was a constitutional right that Thai's could rally there. Obviously the courts meant that the Thai army could rally there... even if they wore Yellow shirts :O)

After, very reluctantly, cancelling the GT 200 bomb detector contract, army chief Anupon Paojinda has also decided to cancel the controversial 350million baht ‘surveillance‘ airship purchase claiming it doesn’t fly high enough. Perhaps if it carried less bombs… :O) I should stress that this post is not meant to be a personal attack on Anupong, or even the Thai army. It is merely a comment on the military mind. The use of euphemisms like ‘surveillance’ is used by the Americans too - for their drones which nevertheless are flying bombs! However this post is essentially meant to cause people to reflect on the fact that an estimated half a million ’security’ troops in Bangkok might actually be there for a different purpose and may leave the rest of the country a little under protected. As the elephants always say in their war with the mice - if only we were bigger!

This quote from Alan Watts is somehow very Buddhist: As Robert Oppenheimer said a short while before he died, "It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so." You see, many of the troubles going on in the world right now are being supervised by people with very good intentions whose attempts are to keep things in order, to clean things up, to forbid this, and to prevent that. The more we try to put everything to rights, the more we make fantastic messes. Maybe that is the way it has got to be. Maybe I should not say anything at all about the folly of trying to put things to right but simply, on the principle of Blake, let the fool persist in his folly so that he will become wise.

Since the BP you post a link to is pro-government JT... here is a link to the other BP - to add a little balance. http://us.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog Or, if you prefer Red in simple black and white :O) http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/ji-ungpakorn-on-d...

It makes me laugh that the Chulalongkorn Hospital is claiming it doesn’t get involved in politics as it continues to protest over the recent Red search of its premises… http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/176762/hospital-staff-gather-to-... It must be a fairly new policy since they refused to treat the Thai police who were involved in a conflict with the yellow PAD! http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/index.php?blog=5&title=thai-hospitals-refu... Or if you prefer the Bangkok Post http://www.bangkokpost.com/pad_mass_protest/pad_mass_protest_article.php... Makes you wonder why there is so much fuss over a few upset patients and so little fuss about the almost 1,000 wounded and over 25 dead mostly shot by members of the government security forces!

It is said that ‘those who live by the sword die by the sword’ but what of those who live by lies? Are they similarly to fall by the very thing that they survive on, lies, or will it be truth that brings their end? I ask this because the Thai PM has taken up the accusations used by the Yellow PAD which claim that former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, many of his supporters and the Red leadership are all part of a plot to get rid of the Thai king! Now the Thai king is a great man and is widely loved by the vast majority of the Thai people despite the use of the PAD propaganda which asserts that PAD was formed to support and protect the King from the evil intentions of Thaksin and, by implication, his Red ruffians. So, now there is finally a light being shone on these accusation and with luck Thailand should finally be forced to confront the truth of what many consider to be the root cause of division. What’s worrying is the high level of disinformation being put out through the Thai media. The Chulalongkorn Hospital that I mentioned in my last post is a great example of how this is managed. This is the truth so far as I know - The Reds were tipped off that there were some soldiers in the hospital with guns. There followed a rather clumsy search of the hospital by Red in which many patients were upset. Red emerged from the hospital with 2 suspects but later released them believing them to be staff. The hospital then began a series of high profile transfers of various patients from the hospital including one who, it was alleged, had a heart attack during the move. The various media milked the continuing actions taken by the hospital, cancellations of out patient appointments, crying nurses, worried relatives, demonstrating nurses etc. doctors complaining that the could not do their jobs properly. Pictures of nurses demonstrating carrying large card squares above their heads which merged into a giant Thai flag and a Red Cross. The whole media circus routine. With the hospital maintaining it was not run by the Thai state but rather a Red Cross hospital and hence non political and was not taking sides. As you will have noticed if you read the latter 2 links in my earlier post, this same ‘Red Cross’ hospital refused to treat Thai police who were hurt in a similar demonstration being held by the Yellow PAD about 18 months ago which led to the closing of the 2 Bangkok airports and the stranding of hundreds of thousands of holiday makers. Now, I didn’t realise that Red Cross staff were allowed to pick and choose who they would treat and who they wouldn’t but I found the picture of the Thai policeman covered in blood sat at the side of the road after, apparently, being refused treatment by the non-political Chulalongkorn hospital far more distressing than the bed shuffling that seemed to causing so much distress to everyone else. More puzzling was that on the news yesterday the leading Thai forensic expert reported that the M79 grenades were fired from the upper level of the Chulalongkom hospital whereas when she appeared on the government NBT channel the newsreader did a voice over to explain the grenades were fired from somewhere within the Red rally!

Terrible! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8681824.stm

http://www.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8684363.stm

Thai authorities have set an ultimatum to protesters calling on women, children and the elderly to leave the camp by Monday afternoon... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8685051.stm http://www.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog

Thailand has become a member of the UN Human Rights Council and so the Thai government should allow the Special Commissioner from UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate Human Rights violation issues. However, the Senate committee for foreign affairs said that chairperson Pikulkaew Kraireuk had called a meeting and it was agreed that this was an internal matter as the government was implementing the rule of law against the illegal and armed protesters. So, these are lawful Human Rights violations? Meanwhile the 4th member of the media to be shot this weekend, a photographer for The Nation, who was shot in the leg by soldiers, had to wait more than 30 minutes while others who had ducked for cover did not dare to move to help him as gunshots continued to ring out. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/37387/fourth-journalist-hurt-in...

It was obvious, several years ago, when PAD started peddling its hate that it would all end in tears! Hate breeds hate and now brother fights brother spouting excuses for their thinly veiled hate and rage. It’s extremely depressing to see how many self-professed, ’devout’ Buddhists quickly change their chant from ’compassion’ to ‘kill' when their faith is tested! The chant spreads quickly from leaders to followers and soon HATE is rubbing his hands in glee as his servants confront one another. You can’t heal hate with violence! Consider this :- When the light of Reason flickers and fades like a guttering candle and only Faith remains to battle the pressure, pain and prejudice of Paranoia. When you have exhausted your hubris and perceived the Poisoned Pigmy in his portrayal of the Pleasant Priest. When you curse the Captains of Civility and their blind, smug, self-satisfied, supercilious solutions. When there is no choice but to fight, no hope but to delay and no aid but the shattered remnants of a once cherished philosophy. When consequences no longer count and the final scream of capitulation is welling, unbidden, in your breast. When all seems lost and it is no longer possible to bear the unbearable. When Hate is set to triumph in your soul. Hold fast to your Faith! Love must persevere. Love must prevail. For if we lose that we lose all! These are dark days... and the only hope is the Power of Love!

An obviously set up video of a child, surrounded by cameras, being lifted up above pile of tyres is doing the rounds and it reminded me of this. http://goodstuff4u.multiply.com/journal/item/84/PAD_IS_USING_CHILDREN_AN... Of course, so far as I know, no-one actually shot any yellows but I remember yellow shot others including taxi drivers. Nice of the police and army to leave the PAD in peace at the airports where they wouldn't bother anyone.

Yeah, that’s the one Chuck, if you watch the video (linked below) you will see several cameras besides the videocam... Either a stunt or a deliberate hoax I’d bet! Reading the comments is the real eye-opener... It's obviously just more propaganda Chuck. http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-445256?ref=feeds/people/connect/freakingcat

In my opinion most religions are far worse than Buddhism in that respect, Chuck, and I'm praying it will stay that way! By which I mean that I'm praying that Thailand will resist the hucksters of hate and seek to heal rather than hurt.

It seems from this BP article (linked below) that the government have taken advantage of their accusations that Reds are terrorists and are planning to freeze the financial transactions of 116 people and companies it believed have provided funding for Red. It also reports that CRES has warned over 80 financial institutions that they must submit details of any financial transactions made by, or to, people and companies on a banned list between Sept 1, 2009, and May 17, 2010. CRES also warned that a penalty of up to two years in jail and a 40,000 baht fine would apply to EACH transaction that the firms fail to report. How do you put a bank in prison? Unaccountably most Puea Thai MP’s seem to be on the banned list too - maybe everyone but the PAD and other members of the government coalition are deemed terrorists :O) http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/37474/udd-leader-admits-protest-fu...

It was obvious, several years ago, when PAD started peddling its hate that it would all end in tears! Hate breeds hate and now brother fights brother spouting excuses for their thinly veiled hate and rage. It’s extremely depressing to see how many self-professed, ’devout’ Buddhists quickly change their chant from ’compassion’ to ‘kill' when their faith is tested! The chant spreads quickly from leaders to followers and soon HATE is rubbing his hands in glee as his servants confront one another. You can’t heal hate with violence! Consider this :- When the light of Reason flickers and fades like a guttering candle and only Faith remains to battle the pressure, pain and prejudice of Paranoia. When you have exhausted your hubris and perceived the Poisoned Pigmy in his portrayal of the Pleasant Priest. When you curse the Captains of Civility and their blind, smug, self-satisfied, supercilious solutions. When there is no choice but to fight, no hope but to delay and no aid but the shattered remnants of a once cherished philosophy. When consequences no longer count and the final scream of capitulation is welling, unbidden, in your breast. When all seems lost and it is no longer possible to bear the unbearable. When Hate is set to triumph in your soul. Hold fast to your Faith! Love must persevere. Love must prevail. For if we lose that we lose all! These are dark days... and the only hope is the Power of Love!

Sometimes you have to do what you believe is right regardless of the personal consequences! ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men say nothing’ So... The following post (linked below) taken from Bangkok Pundit sums up what the real problem in Thailand is :- 'The acceptance speech by Pongpat Wachirabanjong for best supporting male actor role has been very popular on Facebook and Twitter After thanking a few people, Pongpat states: It's an award received for playing the role of a father so I'd like to talk a little about father. The father is the main pillar of a home. And my home is big, very big. There are a lot of us living there. It is a beautiful home. Both beautiful and warm, but for it to have become this way dad's ancestors had to pay with their sweat, blood, and lives before we could have such a home. Until today, father is tired from taking care of his home and from looking after the well-being of everyone in this home. I don't know if someone is angry with someone else, I don't know if someone's expectations weren't met, and then they take it out on dad, hate dad, curse dad, and think that they'll chase out dad from his home. I'd go up to that person and tell them: "If you hate dad, if you don't love dad anymore, then you should get out of here! (audience breaks into enthusiastic applause and camera cuts to an actor wiping the tears from his eyes) Because this is dad's home!. Because this is dad's land!!" I love the King (applause becomes thunderous) ... and I believe that everyone here loves the King too (standing ovation). We are all the same colour. I entrust myself to the King. Thank you." ' http://asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog/pongpat-s-speech The problem is the continued assertion that the Reds and Thaksin and everyone who can be seen as supporting them are against the King! This is why I have consistently blamed the present problems on Yellow as it was PAD that promoted hate and grew by feeding off it’s UNSUBSTATIATED CLAIMS THAT THAKSIN PLOTTED TO GET RID OF THE KING! I would hazard a guess that (PAD) Korn and Kasit (supposedly Democrats MP’s) are now the power behind the government and that is why it has adopted the same claims that PAD have been using for years. It’s an old trick but a good one. “Better dead than Red.”, “Commie go home.” etc. When you get enough support then you can have a lovely witch hunt. Can we hear the governments proof of these allegations? Are they simply suspicions? As people have pointed out before :- When PAD started accusing Thaksin of being against the King they also claimed that the reason they had formed was to protect the King and Country from his evilness. Essentially the Reds sprang up to defend the Thaksin and so, by association, must be against King and Country too! So PAD claimed the moral high-ground and proposed a new form of ‘Democracy’ which would help to make sure that Thaksin and his supporters could never return to power. The fact that PAD were allowed to pretend that they were doing this in support of the King is a key factor! Sondhi L founding leader of PAD whose media empire made a fortune from his claims that Thaksin plotted to get rid of the King has been found guilty several times of ‘Defamation’, essentially what we would call ‘libel,’ and even of Lese Majeste but he has never been punished! Now since PAD claim to be protecting the King from those who would get rid of him they obviously put the Reds into the against the King camp! So, lets return to the Father Family analogy. If you didn’t agree with your brother and your brother spread the rumour amongst the rest of the family that you were against your father what would you do? Well, I’d try and prove that the rumour wasn’t true, but how can you disprove a rumour? I would try and have a word with my father to explain what was going on and hope that he would say something to clear things up. Then, if my father didn’t do that I would start to wonder why. There is no doubt that the King is a great man and he does tell his family how to proceed but it is done subtly. I would argue that the King does not want to be seen as interfering and so he talks to the younger members of the family and hopes that the older ones will see the light. So who has the King talked to recently. Young men and women who will be the future judges and law makers. The King reiterated what he had told them before - that they should aspire to the Buddhist ideal of putting the truth before themselves to ensure that Thai Justice will be fair and unbiased and that through the rule of law will come peace. I took that to mean that the judges should be honest and fair in relation to the Democrat dissolution case - and that being so it might well be the real reason that things have become so desperate and the Democrats have beeen doing everything in their power to delay the judgement!