The ugly side of nationalism
As I wrote before, I've been unsettled and saddened by the abusive, violent, irrational things some Thai people have been saying recently. The anti-foreigner sentiment hasn't calmed and there is still a tendency to react angrily to news stories. Just to give you a few examples of what I'm talking about, here are some quotes aimed at the Western press from around the Internet, some from my own Facebook friends.
"If i had a chance or a license to kill someone, I'll have those people killed. no peaceful to these ridiculous asshole people, fuck you and your career."
"mind his own business, he doesn't even know much about THAILAND (except food, possibly) and seems too much a prick of himself…I bet he's born that way…a whining prick!"
"FUCK YOU CNN, WOULD YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP !????! sorry for being rude but WHY? they need to drag our King to be involved with this situation???"
"The stupid Americans are too arrogant to search for the right conclusion."
"Fuck CNN, let's get Dan Rivers out of Thailand."
"Judging from his work from the past, this foreign journalist who has been staying in Thailand for that long period, we would have no doubt that he has been paid not only by CNN to perform his duty."
" I am Thai. I love my country, my king. before reporting please investigate.So, don't report any thing if you don't know the truth.you should change a new reporter now."
"dan river,let him go to rest in peace with SEH DEMONS DEANG in hell."
"CNN hires him to lie the world coz US gov. would like to take over our country like Iraq."
"I am in a war against Dan Rivers of CNN. Go to my facebook and help me!"
"Actually, he should shut up and also shut his life in Thailand. I encourage Thai people to express our hateful feeling to him and if we have chance, aggressively tell home to go away from Thailand. He is useless for our country."
"if you not a stupid you should know that Dan River was take side with the suck RED SHIRT and seem to be he get a big money from the Tyrant Thaksin."
I could go on. These outbursts aren't coming from uneducated people. They're not even coming from people unfamiliar with foreigners and the Western press. It is perplexing to think that these Thais cannot see the dangers of stirring up this anti-foreigner sentiment that is becoming increasingly more filled with hatred, to point of wishing death on journalists and others.
And this isn't even touching on the two op-ed pieces the SMH has ran on the Thai King or the clusterfuck that was CNN's Brooke Baldwin covering the same subject.
Thailand's Ambassador to Australia, Kriangsak Kittichaisaree actually had an opinion piece published by SMH. He also wrote a letter to SMH in which he went so far as to accuse an SMH journalist of being one of many hired "spin doctors" who are apparently paid to write bad things about the monarchy and the government.
There's also a letter to Dan Rivers written by someone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who apparently thinks Dan Rivers is in charge of everything at CNN.
Tulsathit Taptim said this in a recent op-ed for Nation:
All I'm saying is, we have reached the unfortunate point where nobody can do anything without offending or infuriating someone else. Like it or not, it's the reality that we have to live in.
There's a lot of truth in that, but angering someone doesn't have to result in such knee-jerk fury. Of course, anyone who has spent time in Thailand will have come across this before.
Anyone who even dares to question the government or the monarchy is labeled as stupid and on Thaksin's payroll.
'The ugly truth of his bias reporting' That's what this title should be, Dan rivers is just another CNN correspondent who was bought by Thaksin.I swear,I've seen both of his interviews with Thaksin & PM Abhisit, it was so obvious that Dan Rivers was almost kissed Thaksin's ass but he was rude to PM Abhisit. Dan, shame on you! CNN should have its new reporter in Bangkok.
Dan Rivers is insulting Thailand and Thai people, I was wondering how come he has never said anything not even once to disagree or condemn those Red Shirt Thugs? Those thugs they have M79, hand grenade, shotgun, M-16, other handmade explosive and etc. and those thugs burnt down many buildings in Bangkok and also the city halls buildings in other provinces as well, even though Dan Rivers has seen their terrorist acts with his own eyes, but he was still trying to ignore those stories, he kept going on and on to condemn or accuse Thai Govt. and its military to make them look like the murderers in front of the camera. I always question his objectivity, well I guess his one-sided reporting speaks louder than words and has caused the hate towards him. He is paid by CNN and also by Thaksin to be a Big Liar! We can see it clearly; Dan Rivers is a big fan of Thaksin & Red Shirts. We the Thai People are not surprised about this jerk at all! He should know that too.
Just to clarify, I'm not Dan Rivers. My name is not Dan.
Well, The Lost Boy, we know that you're not an asshole Dan Rivers, but we hope that what you are reading in here is help telling you the truth from our side not only from Dan Rivers or other people outside Thailand, and we really appreciated your fair & balanced, we hope that Dan Rivers will keep coming back and read the comments on this page, he deserves the hate from Thai people, and we hope that he has learned from the past for what he has done, who knows? He might want to improve his reporting and will be more accurate if he still got his pride! Dan Rivers! C'mon, be a manly man, will you?
Dear Mr. Dan Rivers,
I will be patient and rational with you here; And I hope you are brave and open-minded enough to read the comments on this page.
First of all, you have again mislead the audience with your message. You made yourself sounded like a poor protagonist again violent and abusive Thai people who hate "Farang". You distorted and left out facts and truth about the whole issue. You message has turned the case between you and your one sided CNN report about Bangkok unrest in May 2010 into an anti-foreign issue. That is completely false, absurd and unacceptable. This made it clear that you have an issue not those angry Thai people who bombarded you with those angry messages.
You have made me into thinking that you want other foreigners who might not have enough information about your controversial report to mistake that Thai people do not like foreigners and can even get violent with "farangs". This is unbelievable.
Mr. Rivers, why didn't you include the link to your report and explain why it stirred up so much anger among Thais.
No one here thinks that you are responsible for CNN because you can not even be responsible for your little piece of report. Anyone could achieve that kind of report with a camera and a microphone. It is completely one sided and distorted. The only reason I would believe it is not as biased as it was alleged is that the reporter would be low mentality to jump in such conclusion.
There are many other reports that present what really happened during the unrest that are not attacked by Thais. Miss Brooke Baldwin's report is another story. She has shown clearly how unprofessional a reporter could become when she spoke of a person in a wheelchair in such mocking tones and attitude. Her story is also shallow. She made a historical and a cultural report of another country sounded like a cheap American daytime talk shows.
I never get angry when truth or fact is spoken or reported. Yes, it might made me sad to hear something but never angry. Everyone dies, eventually. Even you and me. Thai people don't get angry just because a foreign report says that anyone we love will die. It's the misleading messages that reflect the untrue and biased views.
Lastly, If you think you and your report are truthful, prove it. Come out from the hiding and show it to the world. Respond to those rational and informative responses with supported evidences against your report.
Be a man.
Regards,
TH
People, don't get mad. As much as I think Dan Rivers is hopeless (ha ha), he didn't call the senders of the messages "UNEDUCATED".
Read it carefully…He said "aren't coming from"
not "came from".
"These outbursts aren't coming from uneducated people. "
Anyway, no need to get angry with this person.
He doesn't even have a clue what went wrong or perhaps he's lying to himself.
Good luck, Dan Rivers. Oh, and when people say "get out of Thailand", they specifically meant YOU and only YOU!
Adiós
CLUSTERFUCK
definition : Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong. Related to "SNAFU" (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up") and "FUBAR" (Fucked Up Beyond All Repair). In radio communication or polite conversation (i.e. with a very senior officer with whom you have no prior experience) the term "clusterfuck" will often be replaced by the NATO phonetic acronym "Charlie Foxtrot."
By the time the artillery came in the enemy was already on top of us. It was a total clusterfuck.
————————-
So you said Miss Baldwin report is "a clusterfuck", what does that imply? She prepared a complicated political and cultural story of a nation in merely less than 2 hours?
What about your report?
Is it a clusterfuck or just fucked up?
Thank you "Simon". Very well said.
Joe Says:
May 29th, 2010 at 10:47 am
I don't get it. I really don't. I have been in Thailand over 10 years and I don't understand why Thais are so upset with the foreign press. And THIS worries me. It makes me think Thais have become irrational and even dangerous. They feel no one has a right to comment on their country.
These are sad days for Thailand. Sad days indeed.
If you don't get it and if it's that sad, just leave.
Did you write this Dan?
the real world Says:
May 30th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
the campaign to discredit the western media has begun. those people behind it have decided that they did not like the reality they were shown, and instead of dealing with it. they have chosen to shoot the messenger. It is a form of censorship. instead of blocking journalists, they just convince the gullible masses that the journalist are all wrong…thereby achieving the same result.
it is very simple…. in the western media, we report what we see. there were reports that showed people on the red side of the barriers with guns, there were other reports that showed Army snipers shooting wilding into the crowd….which were there more of ?….well, let us all be honest, there were far more soldiers with guns than red shirts.
unlike the thai media, we in the western press are not terrified of upsetting our superiors, or worried about are jobs. Several so called thai media commentators have suggested that the western press should listen more to the Local media…. Well this is not only ridiculous but insulting. when there were explosions and gun shots on the street…we would flick though thai tv to see what was happening… and what did we see ?….soap operas !!
even yesterday at the government press conference. the western media were handed a "declaration" from the gvt. listing all of the mistakes we had made…..
one of which was very telling… it stated that the army had not been shooting at people !!!… and yet on every tv channel on the planet, including thai tv, there has been images of troops firing automatic weapons, horizontally at protesters…. TNN TPBS Ch3 etc etc all have shown and continue to show these images. and yet they continue to accuse us of false reporting ???
where is the logic ?
if you don't like your reality, do something about changing it…don't shoot the messenger.
To send death threats and threats of violence to Dan Rivers is childish and pathetic.
Dear Mr. Dan Rivers,
I hope you come back to read this and other comments. You have again reported one sidedly leaving out the fact that could make you look bad. You made yourself look like a poor protagonist against violent, irrational Thai nationalists.
You turned the story against your controversial report into "an anti-foreigner" issue. Unfornately, no one here seems to pick up that point of yours.
It's about your shallow and inaccurate report; and the violent messages from those who want you out of Thailand is specifically made to YOU and YOU only.
Do you speak Thai or do you understand Thai?
Because if you don't, you miss out half of the truth about what really happened. Do you understand what those UDD leaders spoke on stage?
Don't make it sound like armed military was shooting irrationally at these protestors. I lived in the protest area. I have seen these people. They are armed and they are treats to normal civilian like me.
As For Miss Baldwin's report, it was just shallow and insulting. She made a comment about a King in a wheelchair with a mocking tone. That is very inappropriate to anyone in a wheelchair.
Her report is shallow and sentimental. It shows how poorly prepared it was. I don't get angry to hear that someone I love will die. Everyone dies eventually including you and me. So it's not that we can not accept the truth about death, it's how you present it.
I only hope you are professional enough to reevaluate your report that stirred up so much hatred among Thais. We live in this country. We know our history. It's absurd to see how the truth about our country being distorted by a reporter like yourself.
If you believe you and your report are unbiased and accurate, please prove it. Respond to those rational and informative responses that contain concrete evidences against your report. Don't just pick and choose.
The only reason I would believe you didn't report with bias would be to think that you a low mentality reporter to come up with such coverage.
Be a man.
Regards,
TH
A Video dedicated to a report like you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38quBV7EKdY
http://www.tannetwork.tv/tan/ViewData.aspx?DataID=1029777
[insert open letter to CNN here -- Lost Boy]
Once again, I am not Dan Rivers. You people are addressing Dan Rivers as if this is his blog. I have no idea if he is even reading your comments.
Dan Rivers, your life is not safe in Thailand. You should go home.
Who cares what CNN broadcasts? It is only one of thousands of sources for information. Flaming Dan Rivers is just another way of avoiding the real issues.
People are always looking for scapegoats in Thailand.
Red, yellow, blue, black — maybe these people could put down their mobile phones, look each other in the eye, and figure out a way to not kill each other?
In terms of understanding the news, the only thing lacking in Thailand is critical thinking skills. Education?
People are always looking at themselves in the mirror, too! What's that all about?
The lost boy, Dan Rivers has read this blog because he has this site's url posted in his twitter. Unless someone impersonate him to create his twitter account.
http://twitter.com/danieljerivers
That's why Thai people keep sending messages to him on your blog.
Yeah, I saw that. But that doesn't mean he's reading these comments. People on Twitter are taking the title of this blog post as a direct quote from Dan. And also a lot of people think he actually wrote this post.
GUYS! NO MATTER WHOSE THE BLOG IS OR DAN RIVERS POPPED IN HERE OR NOT….IT'S FUNNY SOMETIME SEEING THOSE FXXXING YELLOW MOUTHS CRYING TO DEATH TO THE WORLD HOW MUCH THEY LOVE THAILAND AND THEIR SO-CALLED DADDY. IF YOU DONT SAY THE SAME THEY KEEP CRYING LIKE THIS FXXXING SHIT!
I've never been more saddened than to see the comments of people I thought had
Now we know that the airbrushing is to conceal a lot of poison.
Well, there's lots of things I still love about the country, but there's no need for me to balance that by pointing out the ugly side.
The elite are doing a great job for me.
For all farang who said sth like "I used to love this country so much". Do I look like I care what you think? If you are destroying out country, I'll stand up and fight till the death.
Waran
Without these Farang whom you seem to want to fight until death your country would've been communist since 1975.
Without Farang you'd have no internet, no cars, no english language to write your threats in, no airconditioning to keep your heart cool, even though your visceral anger is obvious to all.
You'd have no tshirts, no jeans, no cool fashion to buy at Siam, Paragorn or Emporium. Your music, which sucks so bad you have to rely on K and J pop, would be one continual and painful dirge, stripped bare of even the playful tunes of Isaan's luk tung.
Without Farang you'd have no system of law, no railways, no airports and… these are the best two bits …. no Buddhism and no spicy food, both of which were bought by outsiders to Thailand.
Thailand is barely a country anymore – the southern muslims want out and now the Isaan and northern peoples are likely to follow through the outdoor.
Eventually, all Thailand will be is a tiny little enclave of spoiled, hysterical, whining, selfish, dumb hiso kids living in Bangkok protected by an army of sniper-rifle toting psychopaths.
The truth is the kind of attitude you display here will reduce your country to an international laughing stock.
In short, no-one anywhere will care what you think and they won't care when 1million angry people throw you and your kind out onto the street.
There are plenty of other beaches on the planet where farang won't have to put up with airport occupations, scamming gangster locals, fascist governments and silly little boys offering to "fight till the death."
The Lost Boy, believe me, Dan Rivers or even his fellows are still coming back and read this blog, they want to see all the critics by themselves too. That's good, because it's very obvious that Dan Rivers took side by supporting red shirt & Thaksin. It's O.K. if he wants to do the news his way to get higher ratings, he may wants to only showing that the Thai army is shooting to the protesters and trying to crackdown those thugs, but Dan should also say and shows something about the Red Shirt protesters with M79, M-16, shotguns, handmade explosive devices and hand grenades in their hands too.
You can see in many videos on Youtube that the protesters are armed.
So shooting down some of those who were trying to shoot them, or throwing the grenades or trying to set a car bomb is very rational.
This is why CNN is no longer trustworthy News network in Thailand, because of its one-sided news reporting .
Why don't they show the other side too? And when the protesters burn down many places, the standard has been shifted as a war zone. Did CNN ever say anything or condemn those terrorist acts of Red Shirt? Did they say or show many places across the country were burnt down by those Red terrorists? No, they didn't. Never once! Why is that?
Open your eyes people, this is not a peaceful protests like the protesters claim.
Besides, Dan Rivers personally got paid from Thaksin in many news coverage when Thaksin was in powe, we doubt that Dan probably still gets the money. Thaksin is a billionaire and he was a big corrupt PM don't forget that! So they are still friends and money can buy Dan so easily. Comparing him to honest reporters, Dan Rivers doesn't match up. He doesn't have any pride! What a shame!
Fuck YOU DAN, stupid reporter CNN.
low quality reporter.
A Thai reporter Says:
"Thai reporter are never biased and never dramatise events to sell our papers. We only tell the truth as dictated to us by Thai army and government spokespersons."
Now, how do you know that Thai army and government spokespersons are telling you the truth?
Truth is nothing but a Rashomon-effect…
The Lost Boy,
I made a big mistake! I thought this was Dan's blog. So this is your blog. Do you live in Thailand?
What made you think it's anti farang? It's just so wrong. What a waste of time. Just stick with your view if it makes you happy. I am not anti-farang but I don't understand why they stay in a country that they hate so much.
…….
Dear the Lost Boy, you are really LOST! Listen, I am one of the people who don't agree with what CNN has reported about Thailand and the King. None of the comments i have read show that we are anti-foreigner. We just can not stand the "so called" Most Trusted Name In News to be irresponsible and misleaded.
FYI, There are many many farangs that are open minded, understand and love our Culture. They even write the comment to blame CNN. So Stop defending Dan Rivers or other biased, disrecpectful reporters
I just can't stop myself from coming back and read new comments from time to time, and last week, after having pressure from all of his critics, Dan Rivers has show some guts by showing the media the photos and the footage those were taken on day of crackdown May 19th sometime before army moved in, that guy was wearing army style fatigues but he was at Ratchadamri BTS station with other militia amid the Red Shirt protest and others wearing black! But Dan Rivers was still saying that he wasn't sure who they are, it was so obvious that those bad guys with guns are from Red Shirts, they were helping the Red Shirts to fight back and shoot Thai soldiers who were out there and tried to take back BTS area. Dan is not brave enough to tell the truth just because he wants to defend Red Shirts as always, the footage was taken on May 19th, Dan just decided to bring it out the end of May so Thai ppl and the media could see it, what took so long anyway? Well, Dan, you can now crawl back into your Red hole!
I still would like a specific account of where CNN or Dan Rivers misreported things from the place they stood.
Thais who are unhappy with the western press need to recognize that Thailand does NOT , nor every has had a Free Press.
The Thai press has always been free to report UNTIL one of Thailands many coups or “state of emergencies” are declared. Then the free press gets censored or shut down and only the government’s views are printed.
For example, right now in Thailand, the radio stations,websites and newspapers who print red shirt sympathetic stories have been shut down.
This will go on until the government decides it is safe to let the other side air their views. That could be weeks, months or years.
In addition No one in Thailand can say anything critical of the Monarchy. This is written into the constitution. Any criticism of the Royal family or any discussion of the role of the Monarchy in politics is not allowed.
Imagine if the English press were not allowed to print stories critical of Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles. You could say nice things…but that’s it. No criticism.
So, to the Thai people who are unhappy with western press, you need to reform your own house before you can criticize others.
My guess is that the reason they are unhappy with the western press is because they have been listening to their government’s side of the story for so long that they’ve been brainwashed into believing that there is only one side on a two sided coin.
When the press is muzzled, the only views that make the headlines are the government’s views. That’s how it works in Thailand…and in Red China
[...] As I have covered in my previous post, there are large number of Facebook groups created, as ‘anti CNN’ and ‘anti Rivers,’ which consists of vulgarity and aggressiveness. [...]
We are not talking about ' anti-foreigner , anti- CNN or anti-Dan Rivers' We are talking about Dan Rivers's one-sided news reporting, and he was always taking side of Red Shirts & Thaksin, just admit it, will you? Even Dan himself is being a coward and he wouldn't coming out and defend himself because he knows he is a Red Shirt CNN correspondent in Thailand, Dan sucks !
Love Live Dan River, ignore all those potato brain who curse you are selfish individual who chose to have all the wealth to themself. These people are blind and sick. Let them all die under darkness of this cruel government.
Media like The Nation & Bangkok Post are the two most bias media as their headline always instigate hatred among other segment of the Thais. Pathethic is the word to Thailand politics. Any people with a functional brain will know there are double standard and conspiracy agianst the poor.
To : Furious ( A big fan of Dan Rivers)- You might want to read this article, you may get smarter a bit. Dude, wake up and look around you! You seemed to be the one who is still blind and sick !!
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/note.php?note_id=124574420914802&id=745951014&ref=mf
To : Furious ( A big fan of Dan Rivers)- Or you can check out at the Facebook profile of "Michael Yon" on his article he posted; "Media Coverage of Thailand" Then you will see another link for you to read at "CNN and BBC fully deserve the criticism" it was from 'Bangkok Dave.'
I followed and loved Dan Rivers during the protest. i don't understand why thailand criticizes CNN and BCC when actually they are masters in the art of censorship. i noticed all media are yellow. there is no way to hear a different point of view from a thai media. is this democracy? So lucky i can use internet and watch CNN, BBC and other international media. Till they will be banned in thailand for their free point of view.
Maybe thailand is going to be like China.
[...] the Bangkok crisis last year, there was a huge wave of nationalist sentiment in Thailand that was most visible on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. As you may [...]
[...] Well, except when it is directed at CNN and Dan Rivers, in particular. Where was the outrage at threats, including death threats, [...]