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Sunday, 29 June 2008 12:04 |
They do it again and again, the Western media and Western politicians. Ignoring all the shades between white and black. “Democracy in Asia? Beware of Thailand” is the title of an editorial published by the Italian daily La Stampa.
The author argues that “the explosive mix of street protests and veiled military threats holds the (Thai) [...] |
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Saturday, 28 June 2008 08:43 |
“Death” is a very Thai topic. Thais love the morbid, bloody and the shocking - or don’t they? Thais’ odd fondness for a very own cult of an own danse macabre is legendary. Just have a look at the frontpage of a local tabloid.
Thais have a more natural, more relaxed relation with death? Take a [...] |
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Saturday, 28 June 2008 05:30 |
For once Bangkok is not the taillight of the digital progress and environmental concerns. Under its “Green Bangkok” campaign the municipal administration gives away 500,000 free Wi-Fi cards for a network covering 400 square kilometers. Enjoy a blazing 64kbps pipe, slightly better than dial up - and than wasting money at the gas pump.
Free access [...] |
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Friday, 27 June 2008 05:47 |
Some time ago I had the pleasure to attend an contemporary Tango dance in Bangkok. The dancers were all Thais. A most amazing feast for the senses. Who would deny that the slender Thai body - be it female or male - is made for this art of the alchemy of human motion.
Lithe, pliant and [...] |
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 04:16 |
Pastrygate: The sentencing and imprisonment of three attorneys for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojamarn is one of the most telling events in Thailand’s modern political turmoil. For the first time, as I can recall, the man himself has been caught red-handed in the very act. Or you seriously fall for the conspiracy [...] |
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Tuesday, 24 June 2008 16:58 |
Vietnam, 1969. Who didn’t admire Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now as mysterious Walter Kurtz, a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe. But take this: Kurtz was fiction. Over in Burma though, decades earlier, a true apocalyptic renegade U.S. soldier existed:
Herman Perry, an African-American soldier who rapidly [...] |
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Tuesday, 24 June 2008 16:28 |
Wow. Am I pissed off. Just bought a brand new submersible water pump for the fish pond. Two weeks later the pump breaks down. The fish would quickly die without water and air circulation. Heading back to Carrefour, where I bought the pump, they smirk maliciously. Sorry, replacement only within seven days.
Forget all Thai virtues [...] |
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Sunday, 22 June 2008 16:53 |
You hear the man and know the man - but you don’t really hear him and you know him even less. What’s driving Chamlong Srimuang? Where does he come from? How can this man practically single-handedly keep a government in check? Remember Black May?
“Early that afternoon (…) military police, firing continuously in the air, moved [...] |
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Saturday, 21 June 2008 09:35 |
First the bad news. It may soon snow in Bangkok. Asian Sweetheart has a short pithy take on our wannabe governor Khun Pluem. He doesn’t like working girls, “has fresh ideas” and “also a good idea of how Thailand is viewed by the rest of the world.” Blue-blooded governor Pluem’s priority would be to shut [...] |
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Thursday, 19 June 2008 14:54 |
Agreed, today’s topic is more than slightly bizarre. And not even a mere Bangkok topic. A question first. Ever read Patrick Süskind’s Perfume? The masterpiece about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in 18th century France? Born with no scent of his own? Driven to murder in order to create the perfect perfume?
Here we go. We didn’t have to [...] |
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Monday, 16 June 2008 04:19 |
In India politicians now and then face an onion uprising, as life on the Subcontinent is unthinkable without abundant cheap onions. In Egypt it’s the bread - now in Thailand the government faces a garlic crisis. Cloves of garlic get imported from China for nothing. But, as the connoisseur knows, Chinese garlic is not as [...] |
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Sunday, 15 June 2008 11:51 |
Another fun eve over at the Dream Hotel - the Playboy Charity @ Dream Mansion. Didn’t see much charity, but saw lots playboys & playgirls. With BangkokDan completely out of place and probably the most unerotic creature at the event, he kept his mission limited to taking shots.
And take a wild guess. Everyone wants to [...] |
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Saturday, 14 June 2008 13:10 |
Maybe it was a bit of both. Shortly after Thaksin Shinawatra’s coming into power the armed Muslim resistance in Thailand’s South was resurrected. I first took it for a war between local vested interests, for a rather misleading chain of conincidences. Because Thaksin had curtailed the power of the army and strengthened the police.
The whole [...] |
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Friday, 13 June 2008 12:08 |
We, the people of Thailand, have a prophet living amongst us. Or never heard of The Church of the Latter-Day Dude? It’s a church that employs a fine-tuned version of Taoism and principles from the movie The Big Lebowski, a crime caper about a philosophical middle-aged slacker who goes by the name The Dude.
Journalist Oliver [...] |
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Sunday, 08 June 2008 15:31 |
It’s hardly a secret, they have all the DVDs and games over at Pantip Plaza. You may even buy your Mac or a DSLR camera at Pantip. Pantip is no longer a synonym for piracy and copyright frauds. To me though, Pantip though holds a secret. It’s the home of the most delicious khao soi [...] |
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Sunday, 08 June 2008 03:19 |
Thanks Tong of Asian Sweetheart for the mention of this Thai Bride Fee article. Thailand’s sin sod, the dowry the groom pays, may have shattered countless prospective marriages already. But times are changing.
As Tong says, the article written by Thai woman named Warangkana Chomchuen “gives you a good idea of what a Bangkok woman thinks [...] |
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 07:01 |
Another telling journey into the mind of Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra, self-declared promoter of human rights, democracy and patron of the poor. Over at Sportsmail they met our former prime minister. To hand you a first candy: He has survived three car bomb attacks and six assassination attempts. His conclusion: “I should be a man who [...] |
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 05:21 |
There is new talk of a unity government in Thailand. The PAD, reduced to a traffic block, seems to drown slowly. Its leaders can’t spark that old flame of rage, while we have seen tentative signs of bipartisanship. But remember what a “national government” by definition is:
A broad coalition government consisting of all major parties [...] |
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 13:17 |
Forget politics. It’s all pleasant football-mania from June 7th to 29th: Europe’s best national teams, except the English, aim for the European crown. You’re in Bangkok and don’t want to cheer your favorite EURO 2008 team in the loneliness of your home, get out of your cave. Here’s what you can do:
We’re sure that some [...] |
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Monday, 02 June 2008 03:19 |
This Friday to Sunday Bangkok will be the center of India. Everybody who has a name in India, from politicians to businessmen, from fashion icons to stars, will be in the Thai capital for the International Indian Film Academy awards IIFA, Bollywood’s equivalent of the Oscars.
Whoever has some basic knowledge about Indians’ enthusiasm for [...] |
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