Is this wishful thinking spilling over onto The Nation’s website? Whoever made this blunder had the comical insight to do it next to a picture of the prime minister looking at a row of toilets. (Spotted by Denis at Bangkok Recorder.)
Also, did anyone happen to see the Bizarro cartoon in the Bangkok Post over the weekend? Very provocative.
There are more writers in Thailand and more writers who write about Thailand than there are Top Charoen Optical stores around the nation. For a writer to stand out from the crowd, he has to have paid his dues. The writers I’ve chosen to highlight here cover a variety of styles and niches, from travel and lifestyle to hard news and investigative journalism. These aren’t the only Thailand writers out there, but these are a few of the writers I make a point to read, even if it means searching for old stories.
Newley Purnell not only has the best name of anybody I’ve ever heard of, he is also a solid writer who has been published by the likes of the New York Times and AFP. I like Newley because he’s a blogger and he comes across as as a cool kind of guy who has life sussed. I particularly enjoyed reading Newley’s NYT article about Khaosan Road.
Andrew Drummond has written so many great stories. He is at the very top of the tree when it comes to Thailand writers. He is published by everyone from The Times to the Daily Telegraph. Check out his recent story about Thailand’s “ruthless marriage market”, written with Ian MacKinnon, another writer whose work I was recently turned onto.
I first came across Andrew Spooner after he wrote an article for the Independent about how dangerous Thailand has become. I and a number of others were somewhat critical of the article, but Andrew was good enough to respond to our criticism and he made a solid argument for his case. I’ve since met Andrew and he’s a decent bloke. It was because of his response on this blog that I looked into other work he has done. Check out “Homestays in northern Thailand“.
I urge all of you to go and read Jonathan Head’s story about “Thailand’s wealthy untouchables“. It’s such a great piece and is one of many that Jonathan has written over the years. A regular down at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, Jonathan is an active member of the media in Thailand and he does a tremendous job in his position of Southeast Asia correspondent for the BBC.
I try and read as many Thailand blogs as I can. I enjoy keeping up with people’s lives, similar to how you would with a soap opera. Reading Bangkok Pundit is different because he’s one of the only Thailand bloggers who puts current affairs before himself. Of course he has opinions, but you’d never read a blog post about BP’s pet cat or what he had for dinner last night. He strives to bring together a variety of news sources, Thai and foreign, as well as adding academic insight into news in Thailand. The blog is updated almost as regularly as The Nation’s breaking news section.
There have been so many books written about Thailand. You walk into any bookshop and you simply can’t escape the variety of books with unimaginative titles. One of my favorite authors is John Burdett. He’s one of the few Thailand authors who can tell a compelling story with wonderful style that doesn’t get bogged down with cliches and tired formulas. John Burdett is so much better an author than the majority of the people who have churned out a novel while in Thailand. Like Jake Needham, whose crime novels are gripping stuff, John Burdett is a former lawyer. His style is a little more fluid than Needham’s, however. Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo are must-reads.
There are travel writers and then there’s the guy who wrote the book about travel writing in Thailand and Southeast Asia – literally. Joe Cummings‘ travel guides for Lonely Planet are the stuff of legend. It’s because of him that countless travelers found their trips a little bit easier to manage. He has written so much that he now has tendinitis in one of his wrists. A trooper, in every sense of the word.
Within a week of meeting Cynthia Barnes she’d shouted at me in her office and made me hate her. It took a while, but I eventually grew to enjoy working with Cynthia and she taught me a great deal about travel writing. Having read a number of her pieces, I have a real respect for her work. Last time I saw her she was about to embark on a trip to Iraq. I haven’t heard from Cynthia for a while, but I gather she is still based in Bangkok. She can appear rather fierce, but once you get over the initial fear she’s a lovely lady. Read her “Confessions of an elephant polo junkie“.
Many of you will be unfamiliar with the name Athiwat Chainurat. I had never heard of him until recently. Khun Athiwat was a reporter for the Matichon newspaper. He was 48 years old. He had a wife and two children – and he was shot dead on August 1.
Members of the media, especially in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, where Khun Athiwat worked, have been understandably shaken by this killing. Khun Athiwat was found dead in the kitchen of his house.
Rumors have been churning. His wife, Khun Pornpimol, said that her husband had clashed with a number of politicians because of stories he had written. Khun Pornpimol was a reporter who apparently never took the same route home twice.
Even the police believe that the killing is related to news reports written by Khun Athiwat. Whether this is a warning shot aimed squarely at investigative journalists in Thailand remains to be seen. At this stage we simply do not know why Khun Athiwat was killed, but he was shot dead, in what looks to be an organised hit.
There were no items reported missing from the home, which suggests robbery was not the motive for the killing. Somebody wanted this guy dead. He was shot four times.
I don’t want to jump to conclusions here – I know nothing of Khun Athiwat’s work – but he was a member of the media and he is dead. It’s a sad story no matter which was you look at it.
What is it about society that drives people to protest? Other than for the sake of being there and actually experiencing a protest, I’ve never felt compelled to take to the streets to stand up for what I believe in. I wonder, though, had I grown up in Thailand rather than the UK, if perhaps this would be different. Bangkok is, after all, a hub of protesting activity.
Protests in Bangkok have been going on for as long as people have been able to voice their opinions. The latest round of protests in Bangkok saw some 10,000 people choose their side over the issue of the government’s plan to redraft the constitution. Had I not been so hungover on Sunday, I would have been down there with them to witness the spectacle.
It seems unlikely that we will ever see a Thailand without divisions that are so strong they polarize opinions and inspire people to take to the streets prepared to fight. This says something about how unstable Thailand’s political climate has always been. There is perhaps only One Person who keeps Thailand from falling into all-out civil war because people are always ready to fight for their beliefs.
When you look at the people at the protests, however, they aren’t that different. They’re really the same people just shouting different slogans. If they’re not shouting then they’re having a picnic or else enjoying a concert in between motivational speakers.
With pressure from the tourism industry, the economy and the world’s media, protests in Bangkok can no longer be met with gunfire and as such, people are more prepared to voice their opinions and challenging issues are raised for governments in a way like never before. The people have now have to be heard, which throws up all manner of controversial opinions, the likes of which have usually been kept behind closed doors. There’s still a long way to go, as the sheer number of reported lese majetse cases bears testimony to, but things are moving forwards.
It’s difficult to envisage a Thailand where everybody is happy with the political situation, but is this really any worse than Western democracy, where people have become so used to the way things are that they no longer care to fight for what they believe? In Thailand, people will even protest the actions and the very existence of an elected government. There really is no way to win.
People are all too happy to protest war or global warming, but when it comes to internal affairs, many people have lost interest. But I look at the situation in the UK, where kids are knifing each other on a daily basis, and I compare it to Phuket, where much the same thing occurs, and really much there are as many similarities as differences.
In Bangkok you can protest for or against governments, coups, constitutions, democracy, rulers, dictators, anything – and it’s through these protests that the most radical ideas are put into the public domain. Exciting time, isn’t it?
In South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, there’s a scene where some of the characters sing a song called “Blame Canada” in response to the trouble that their children have been getting into after watching the movie Terrance and Phillip: Asses of Fire. Imagine, for a minute, that South Park is set in Thailand. What do you think this song would be called?
“Blame Burma”, of course. It isn’t enough that Thailand blames Burmese migrants for cramming themselves in containers and dying en route to Phuket (anyone heard how those children have been doing?). It isn’t even enough to blame Burmese migrants for causing all known crime in Thailand. The Burmese are, in fact, the route of all problems known to mankind.
In a related development, the Chiang Rai Culture Office reports the spread of pornographic games and books. “These materials are smuggled from Burma,” says office director Mongkol Sittilor.
Porn in Thailand? Ah yes, blame Burma. But wait, there’s more:
The situation is dire because many children and monks had been found attempting to smuggle in these items. (Daily Xpress)
Children and monks in Chiang Rai are smuggling this stuff from Burma. What great timing for such a revelation to surface.
