I watched the first three episodes of Bravo’s Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand last night. Everyone’s been talking about this series. It follows around the volunteer tourist police as they deal with foreigners getting into all sorts of bother.
It’s pure entertainment and not much more. Nothing covered in the show is new and you could make the same kind of programme in any of England’s major cities. But still, it’s always amusing watching the situations tourists get themselves into.
It goes like this: people get drunk and then either crash a motorbike or get caught with drugs or get in a fight or piss off a bar girl or rent a jet-ski or get mugged and drugged by ladyboys.
The jet-ski debacle in the first episode has been getting a lot of attention in Phuket. But again, it’s nothing new. Tourists rent jet-skis and sometimes they take them back to shore and are accused of damaging them, at which point the jet-ski operators get very aggressive and demand money. This has been happening for years.
Hopefully now something will be done about the jet-ski owners. They are ruthless scoundrels, but no matter how much advice is available for tourists, people will still rent them.
It’s an interesting show to watch, but if you’re planning on booking flights to Thailand, don't panic and think that these scenarios are the norm. They’re not.
"Not everything that is legal can support the national interest and the interests of the State."
It's a translated quote, so what he actually said may be slightly different, but it looks as if he saying it's OK to break domestic and international laws if it's in the "national interest". I put quotemarks around that as it's a vague term. Whose interest is really being protected?
What is happening? Is Indonesian bullying Timor-Leste or is Timor-Leste just too afraid of Indonesia? What would Indonesia really do if Timor-Leste's leaders started pushing for justice for the 100,000-plus lives that were lost during the Indo military occupation? Cut off supply of motorbike parts and red Fanta?
Regardless, you have to wonder what the point in any law is in Ramos-Horta's eyes. I haven't seen any good reasoning from Ramos-Horta as to why it's so important to protect those responsible for horrendous crimes in Timor-Leste.
He talks about friendship as if it's the people on the streets of Dili and Jakarta hanging out and sharing stories. It's not about the "people". It never has been.
Ramos Horta, in the interview in Tetum, the language most spoken in the country, said that as head of state his first duty is to ensure the sovereignty and independence of East Timor and so he has to cultivate good neighborly relations, particularly with Indonesia, which has its own difficulties in moving towards democracy.
