Pastrygate has been sharing the limelight with the censure debate. The whole debacle raises many issues and is one of the oddest stories of the year so far. Three of Thaksin’s lawyers were jailed on Wednesday for six months for trying to give a court official 2 million baht contained in a “pastry” box. The alleged bribe attempt happened on the same day that Thaksin and his wife were due in court on charges of violating graft laws.

Firstly, since when did 2-million-baht bribes start being dished out in pastry boxes? It’s absurd. You would have thought that three of Thaksin’s lawyers, who are presumably three of the most well-paid, well-educated lawyers in Thailand, would be smarter than that.

Furthermore, why would they just give 2 million baht to a court official? Where is the logic in a random gift such as this?

One of the lawyers initially came up with the lame excuse that a driver had mistakenly taken an identical box containing chocolates, leaving the hapless lawyers with the box of money. The lawyers said that the chocolates, not the money, were intended for the court official, which is still rather strange.

That ludicrous story was quickly dropped. The lawyer admitted that the money belonged to him. I guess the hole in this story is proving one way or another to whom the money belonged. The 2 million baht was reportedly given back to the lawyer after he gave it to the court official.

Thaksin, of course, has tried to distance himself from this story. While I am certain that Thaksin, his wife and his lawyers are smart enough that there is no way Thaksin could be linked to this case, you would have thought that they were smart enough for this not to happen in the first place. After years of corruption in Thailand, it’s odd for such a case to suddenly come to light.

The key, as I see it, is determining exactly where the 2 million came from. Bank accounts need to be scrutinized to get to the bottom of the matter. It’s a lot of money and it must be traceable. Thaksin can deny any knowledge of the bribery money, but if there were a way to link him to it, then the case is thrown wide open.

Perhaps most interesting is the speed with which the three lawyers have been sentenced. Two of the lawyers are in prison already while the third is AWOL. The timing of this whole incident is bizarre.

To everyone who responded to my call for guest posts on other blogs: I haven’t forgotten about you, but I just need a bit of time to actually write the posts. I’m hoping to get them all out by the end of this week. So please bear with me for a few days — I’m not being rude by not replying right away.

After the discussion that went on here with regards to katoey toilets at a Thai school and the subsequent talk over at Roger’s blog, I asked someone whose opinion is perhaps a little more in touch with the issue than any of ours. This post was written by Nong Duu from Phet Ti Saam. — Matt

Basics first: there is no word in Western languages that really fits the meaning of the Thai word กะเทย (katoey). Western languages have developed words to describe a person’s lifestyle and behavior (transvestite, cross-dresser) or self-perception (transsexual), but none of those is a sufficient translation for the word “katoey”, although almost all Thai-English dictionaries say so.

One doesn’t need to walk too long through the streets of Bangkok to recognize the apparent variety of those people who are referred to as katoey: boys with short hair and men’s clothes, but a slightly effeminate behavior, boys with perfect make-up but men’s clothes and, last but not least, beautiful women who once were boys. All of them are katoey, yet all of them are different.

If you ask me for a definition I would say: katoey are males born with a female heart. How much of a woman they are ranges from 0 to 120%.

That also complies with the Thai saying “dua ben chai jai ben ying” (“the body is male, but the heart is female”). So the word “ladyboy“ is not so far from the truth.

“The third sex“ is just another alternative to describe most of us, although many of us (who would be called “transsexuals” in the West) really deserve it to be referred to as women – because that’s what we are. To deal with that, Thai language evolved the expression “saao praphet song“ (“a woman of the second kind”).

With that basic knowledge of the nomenclature, it might be easier to understand, why there is a necessity for a third bathroom for katoeys.

It is not a lifestyle for which the additional toilet is set up, but a whole part of society. By the way, the sign at the ladyboy`s toilet at Kampang High School does not say “katoey toilet“ but “hong naam bandaw“. “Bandaw” is an ancient Sanskrit word that expresses the same thing as katoey, but sounds even more polite and sophisticated.

The reality at Thai high schools is that all boys have to have short hair, a rule that doesn’t exclude ladyboys. The young katoey often try to compensate that confinement by exaggerated effeminate behavior and lots of makeup, which makes it strange to see them walking into the boys’ bathroom, but the girls’ room doesn’t seem to be the right place, too. Besides, the fact that boys, girls and katoeys are in the middle of puberty with all its bashfulness and reservations doesn’t help much either.

So an own restroom for those who are stuck between a rock and a hard place seems the be just the right answer and also gives them acceptance besides the dancing shows that they perform at school festivals.

So there is no reason to speak of gender divisions or discrimination, because the most important thing about those new restrooms is that to go there is only a “can“ but never a “must“. I am pretty sure that there won’t be too much trouble if a katoey student still went to the boys’ room and another more feminine one sneaks into the girls’ room, which is hard to imagine, now that they have their own one.

If those katoey toilets become established throughout the whole country, the third sex would get the official recognition, that it already holds and deserves in everyday life.

I make a habit of buying as much Thai music as I can. The low cost of CDs means that I can buy a few every week and not really notice the expenditure. There’s also a weird satisfaction in confusing store cashiers, who seem to find it hilarious that a foreigner could even comprehend buying Thai music.

Lately, I’ve been buying albums based on cover artwork. It’s kind of like a musical lottery – sometimes I end up with indie music, sometimes ska, sometimes country music. Here are my tips for decent Thai music that I’ve been listening to recently.

I don’t know much about the Richman Toy, but they’re a four-piece who look like the sort of kids you see at Happy Alone parties in Bangkok. The music of the Richman Toy is really exciting, although it sounds like a Thai carbon copy of everything that’s vogue in the current indie scene. The vocalist sounds almost off-key, although I’m told that Thai scales differ to Western scales, so he may be on the ball. If you can find anything by the Richman Toy then I recommend you buy it. The album I have is called Dan Sawan Koi You.

I bought T-Bone’s album Seasons because I liked the cover. The music turned out to be really good, too. It’s kind of ska, jazz, blues, rock and everything in between. T-Bone have been around for more than 10 years, so I was a little embarrassed to have never heard of them, but am glad to have finally picked up an album that breaks the mold in the current music scene.

My final tip for Thai music is Four Mod. No, it’s not really. It’s Bear-Garden. Bear-Garden is June Subnai, a female vocalist signed to Panda Records. She’s released four albums and is currently releasing her fifth one track at a time for free music download through the Panda Records website. Bear-Garden makes the most beautiful pop music I’ve heard for a long time. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.

I’ll leave you with the video for “No Regrets” from the new Silly Fools album, The One. This video was made by Andre Weiss, who I met a few times in Bangkok and had no idea he did this kind of thing. Enjoy.

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