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2BANGKOK.COM'S
NEWS AND VIEWS
DECEMBER 2004
Wish you were here
- December 11, 2004
Latest photo of Ratchaprasong intersection in full swing for the holiday
season.
Latest
from Chang Noi: A national election that is really about nothing
- The Nation, December 20, 2004
[The pseudonymous Chang
Noi handles only the 'hottest' Nation editorials. They
usually come on Monday and here is the latest. Another past example
of tough talk from The Nation is here.]
...By the time the opposition parties lumbered into action, the
drama was over. Thai Rak Thai had commanded the stage, put on a great
show and exhausted the audience’s attention. The opposition parties
have been going through the motions of election campaigning, but with
all the sound and fury of a slow-motion pantomime performed in an
empty theatre. This is not all their fault. The government’s
influence over the Thai-language media (especially the electronic
segment) has meant that the opposition parties are marginalised in
the public space. The opposition parties have crafted campaign platforms,
but the Thai Rak Thai apparatchiks claim these platforms are simply
replicas of the Thai Rak Thai version. This may be massively dishonest,
but it is brilliant strategy.
This is why the opposition leaders, despite their campaign platforms
and advertising efforts, seem like puppets or dummies.
A weightier answer to why this election is about nothing is that the
kind of populism which Thai Rak Thai embraces is designed to make
politics about little issues rather than big ones. Please don’t
think about the future of the country; just enjoy another Bt400,000
for your village fund. Don’t pay attention to all those dead
people, because we have this new SML scheme. Who cares about the rule
of law since we really, really are going to eradicate poverty in six
years. Keep quiet, and you may get rich. Don’t worry about corruption,
because we are waging a war against it, really...
Tigers
stalked by the dragon - Financial Times,
December 17, 2004
The south-east Asian ‘tiger' economies Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand and Indonesia used to be regarded as some of the world's
most dynamic investment opportunities. Now, according to some experts,
their power is being eroded by the ‘dragon' economy of China.
Two factors loom large in this assessment. One is possibly weakening
demand from the US. The second is that, cheap manufacturers though
the tiger economies are, China is cheaper...
One big plus for Thailand is its development of industrial infrastructure,
according to Robert Stockfis, a consultant investment analyst and
long-time resident in the country...
A tale of two newspapers: The
Democrats' rally - December 20, 2004
For once the Post has more details than The Nation in
its report on the Democrats kickoff election campaign. It also stresses
the structural details that prevented the opposition from monitoring
the government.
Pledge
to rein in govt power - Banyat: Time to end rule by 'dictatorship'
- Bangkok Post, December 20, 2004
...He alleged the government, its close aides and relatives had
vested interests in state projects. One cabinet member was dubbed
"Mr 20%'' for demanding commission fees for government projects,
he said, while declining to reveal the person's name.
The Democrats had found irregularities in 25 projects involving more
than 25 million baht, Mr Banyat said.
"I can guarantee that if we have sufficient votes, Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra will be unmasked to show how he has a vested interest
in government projects,'' he said...
Democrats’
call ‘Time to take back country’: Banyat pleads to voters
to reclaim ‘ruined’ nation from ‘dictatorship’
- The Nation, December 20, 2004
...“It’s time to bring down the dictatorship and restore
the country, which has been badly ruined by the Thai Rak Thai government,”
party leader Banyat Bantadtan said at a party convention at the Thai-Japan
Youth Welfare Centre.
“There is no single period in our history in which the government
leader has abused state authority to benefit his clan and has turned
a blind eye to the violation of human rights as has been the case
with this government,” he said...
The
Burma-Thailand gas debacle - The Irrawaddy,
November 2004
Thailand’s state-controlled gas firm signed up for two expensive
gas deals that it later realized it didn’t want. Burma has used
the revenue to finance an arms build-up...
The Yadana consortium hired the Burma Army to clear a path for the
overland portion of its gas pipeline to Thailand through Tenasserim
Division and provide security for the crews. The Burma Army operated
as per normal—burning down villages, press-ganging labor, torturing
and occasionally killing local inhabitants. The Yadana consortium
became so alarmed at the army’s conduct that it purchased bulldozers
in the hope that the men-in-drab would stop using slave labor. Pretty
soon, the pipeline fiasco hit the press...
Hong
Kong's Peak Tower to undergo multi-million dollar renovation
- Travel Tips, December 15, 2004
We are only posting this to mention that during the 1990s Victoria
Peak went from a fabulous mountain-top vista to an overbuilt tourist
trap that ranks with some of the worst in the world.
Thailand
2016 Olympic bid - Sports Business, December
15, 2004
Thailand’s government has officially endorsed the country’s
proposal to bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, reports TNA.
A committee - established to look at the International Olympic Committee’s
(IOC) criteria for hosting the Games - ruled that Bangkok would be
ready to host the 2016 Games...
Happy
Lunar New Year - Today had an important place in ancient Thai calendars
- Bangkok Post, December 12, 2004
Today would be New Year's Day in Thailand, if we still held to
the lunar calendar and ancient agrarian ways of the past.
According to a recent study by anthropologists at Silpakorn University's
faculty of archaeology, Thailand once considered December the first
month of a year or duen ai in Thai, a practice which probably dates
back 1,000 years... Also NEW
YEAR (Bangkok Post, December 12, 2004)
Thaksin
must win the upcoming general election - The
Nation, December 12, 2004
[This article is a good example of the baiting of the Chat Thai Party
and its leader, former PM Banharn, that has appeared in both the Thai
and English-language press.]
...Thaksin needs to win at all costs because he stands to lose
a lot if his party fails to take a simple majority in the House. During
his election campaign, in addition to the lip service and promises
of bread in the skies for the poor and the gullible, he has also poured
contempt on the Chat Thai Party, a submissive and subservient coalition
partner.
Chat Thai leader Banharn Silapa-archa has had to swallow blood and
try hard to hide his anger and bitterness. But beyond the pain of
being at the receiving end of all things done and undone is the desire
to be in the government, which overrides all other considerations,
including good sense, political dignity and the requirement by the
Constitution to serve the public...
Thaksin’s promises of a good life for all people and an end to
poverty will be haunting him to produce quick results before the poor
and the gullible realise that they have been taken for a free ride.
If that happens they might come to realise that those in power have
been amassing wealth beyond the ability of most people to understand...
Shenzhen Western
Corridor - December 13, 2004
A friend in Hong Kong sent in the following amazing photos: Just
a few shots of the Shenzhen Western Corridor from Hong Kong to China
that we are working on. All of it is over water.
Aerial
photographs of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
- December 11, 2004
Via Slashdot: In 1906 San Francisco had a devastating earthquake
- registering around 7.7 to 8.3 on the Richter scale. George Lawrence
had devised ways to take aerial photographs and went to SF to showcase
his technology. He used kites and custom built cameras that could
take photos while up in the air.
Tokyo
Ski Dome demolished - December, 2004
[Visitors to Tokyo will recall this unique indoor slope.]
In 1993 the Ski Dome SSAWS (located in Chiba, Tokyo, Japan), which
stands for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Snow, opened its doors.
In 2004 it was gone. SSAWS, also known as Tokyo Ski Dome was the worlds
first and largest indoor ski area ever built. Even in the hottest
Summer you could enjoy skiing on a 500 meter snow covered slope with
a 80 meter vertical drop.
Unfortunately it was not as successful as planned and closed its doors
in 2001. After a lengthy planning period the demolishing of SSAWS
started in Autumn 2003 leaving the whole area covered in fine white
dust for months. This documentations shows impressions of the demolishing
until the end in Spring 2004 and gives you an idea how huge this building
was.
Salad
bar hacking - December 10, 2004
[Visitors to Bangkok Sizzlers will be familiar with greedy salad-bar
diners who attempt to pile on as much as they can onto a tiny plate.]
Via Boing Boing: This is a photo
from a Chinese PDF manual. The manual explains, via text and a
lot of fun photos, how to cram as much food as possible on one of
those tiny Pizza Hut bowls at the salad bar. They're only allowed
one trip. My cousin lives in Beijing. When he goes to Pizza Hut, he
says this is what most people are busy building.
Thai
leader calls Myanmar's reasons for detaining Suu Kyi 'reasonable'
- AP, December 11, 2004
Myanmar's military junta has reasonable and convincing reasons
for continuing to keep pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under
house arrest, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday.
Speaking on his weekly radio broadcast, Thaksin said he asked Myanmar's
leaders about the Nobel Peace laureate's detention on a trip Thursday
to the Southeast Asian nation. The response from the ruling generals
was that political instability caused by Suu Kyi's release could lead
the country to break up, he said.
More than 100 different ethnic groups exist in Myanmar, the junta
told Thaksin, and unless stability was assured, all would want to
have their own states.
"(Myanmar) will be torn apart into many different countries,"
Thaksin quoted the junta as saying. "(The) country will be a
mess, nothing will be left...
Sathorn fire - 1:04pm,
December 11, 2004
Cormac Bracken reports on a fire in the Sathorn Road area: I could
see it from the 28th floor, so I can tell you that it is not Bangkok
Christian College nor Wat Phra Khek as had been suggested, nor any
embassy, nor any tall buildings. I can't say for sure what it was
though, because it's still completely obscured by smoke. There's a
lot of old houses around that area though, not slums, but not well-kept
considering the value of the land.
I did see one or two St. Louis ambulances among the later hordes of
fire trucks, but really not many. I suspect they were a gesture rather
than there being many casualties.
When a cloud of obviously steam started to drift towards my building,
all the maids ran around closing the windows. Seems that memories
of chemical spills are deeply ingrained.
Fire
tears through 15 houses - The
Nation, December 12, 2004
About 15 houses were damaged in a blaze that took fire-fighters
an hour to get under control yesterday.
At 11.50pm Lumpini police officers and fire-fighters rushed to Silom
Soi 13 in Bangkok’s Bang Rak district after news of the fire.
There were more than 60 wooden houses in the area where the fire broke
out, allowing the blaze to spread rapidly from one to the next. Twenty
fire engines were dispatched to the scene, and it took fire-fighters
an hour to get the flames under control...
Do you know Roger Harpel?
- December 11, 2004
Tom Harpel asks: 16 years ago, my father left Washington state
for Thailand. For the first year, he sent letters back home but eventually
stopped communicating.
I wonder if in your travels you have met him? His name is Roger Harpel.
He lived in Washington state and ran a software company called Cosmos
until 1989. It may be a long shot but the world can be surprisingly
small. I look forward to your reply. |
