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2Bangkok.com is 10 years old this month - May 9, 2009
Above is a cartoon by the Manager's Buncha featuring 2Bangkok editor Ron Morris. The caption reads: Songkran 2009... Bangkok
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Sporty Red Shirts - May 2, 2009
This Central billboard has some rather odd, and certainly unintended, Red Shirt references. The picture contains a red flag, defiant-looking youth, one wearing a red cap, and a burning city in the background.
It reads: Armed equipped readily before the tournament for the best golf tournament of the year - See more than 80 brands of golf sport equipment with 70% discount - Receive maximum 19% discount from the Central 1st cardPattaya videos from 1987-1998 - May 23, 2009
Steve note: Come across this while scouting the net, a guy called Thoti100 has just posted a bunch of homemade videos from Pattaya in 1987/88.
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)The sign reads: Who to believe? - Consciousness + reason = immune system [a protective system for society] - The sustainable thinking project - www.mosothai.com
MOSOThai by ISOC - June 6, 2009
MOSOThai is a kind of py-ops operation from Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC). This is part of a number of initiatives pushed forward after the failed Red Shirt putsch in April as authorities seek ensure the Red Shirt movement does not gain public support.
The name comes from: Mo = Moderation and So = Society. This "movement" calls on "sustainable thinking" to follow the King's sufficiency economic philosophy.
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)It reads: How we are going to live together? - Consciousness + reason = immune system [a protective system for society] - The sustainable thinking project - www.mosothai.com
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)It reads: Shall we flee or [make an effort to] struggle? - Consciousness + reason = immune system [a protective system for society] - The sustainable thinking project - www.mosothai.com
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Mosothai Skytrain - September 14, 2009
The letters read: The sustainable thinking project - By the Army and the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) - www.mosothai.com
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Message from the government - May, 2009
These billboards went up around Bangkok this month and were almost as quickly removed. The text is from a speech by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
It reads: I would like to thank everyone as well as state authorities for their cooperation to promote peace of the nation for we are to move continuously to overcome the national economic crisis. - Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Father - May 29, 2009
The sign reads: Serenity, peace, harmony - Do good deeds as a present to the father [of the country - referring to The King] - Ministry of Interior - Ministry of Transport and Communication - Ministry of Commerce
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)"The role model of the simplicity and sufficiency" - August 1, 2009
The billboard reads: Know sufficiency and therefore (you’ll) be happy - True happiness is gained from the inner peace of the mind - Royal speech of the Princess Mother (Somdej Phra Srinagarindra Boromarajajonani) - In remembrance of the Royal Grandmother (Somdej Ya) who was the role model of the simplicity and sufficiency - The Internal Security Operations Command project promoting self-sufficiency economy principle to fight economic crisis.
Court: Thai soldiers not guilty in Muslims' deaths - Thailandnews.net, May 29, 2009
..."The court stressed the need to transport the victims to the army base in a rush because the incident happened near a royal palace. The court also said a lot of nails that had been sprayed on the road also delayed the trucks. But the court did not mention how the victims were piled up on top of each other," she said.
In 2006, in an effort at reconciliation, the military agreed to drop charges against 58 protesters for illegal gathering, illegal possession of arms and causing a public disturbance. The government also paid financial compensation to the families of the dead and injured...Thailand 'gets tough' with Hmong - BBC News, May 22, 2009
...On a recent trip to Washington DC, the famously loose-tongued Mr Kasit said one Hmong group would be allowed to go to the US - only to back-track after the Lao government protested.
When asked why no international screening or monitoring of the Hmong was being allowed by Thailand, Mr Kasit would only say that such screening was unnecessary, and that he was prepared to trust the assurances of the Lao government.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, the UNHCR and many other agencies strongly disagree...Fat 'bully' loses to Thai bride used as servant - The Australian, May 23, 2009
Thai gaming sites ordered shut down after suicide - Slashdot.org, May 24, 2009
Bangkok beckons with grime, grit, and many opportunities - Watertown Daily Times, May, 2009
Pacquiao embraced as "hero of all Asia" by Thais - GMA News, May 25, 2009
Thailand, site of Manny Pacquiao's success and heartaches early in his career, embraced the Filipino ring superstar like their own and showered the "hero of all Asia" with warm welcome and praise when he dropped by Monday...
Food vendors: A Thai tradition with a twist of innovation - New York Times, May 26, 2009
...Foreign visitors sometimes perceive street vending as a sign of developing-world poverty. But Thais view peddling as a chance to be one’s own boss and earn handsomely. Ms. Sarintira knows a curry seller whose annual profits exceed $52,000, an upper-middle-class income in Thailand. At the big-box retailers and convenience store chains now spreading fast here, clerks typically earn just $3,000 to $4,000 a year.
A few street entrepreneurs have become millionaires. A video shows how Panrop Kamlah cooked up riches with the noodle cart he began 17 years ago. Not satisfied with his initial nightly earnings of $175, he started making his own noodle dough at home, then opened a second stall. After creating his own logo, relatives and friends asked to join, so he offered carts on franchise. Business exploded when he appeared on national television. Today he has a noodle factory and an empire of some 1,500 branded carts...
Unlimited demand for Buddha statues - translated by Pieter from The Volkskrant, May 25, 2009
AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands counts an estimated 250 thousand Buddhists or people who feel a strong affinity with this religion. The growth is so strong that besides from Islamizing we can now also talk of Buddhizing of the Netherlands, according to researchers Marcel Poorthuis and Theo Salemink of the Tilburg University.
''But strange enough nobody is worried about this. Buddhism has apparently a better image than Islam", according to Poorthuis, lecturer of interreligious dialogue.
Buddhism is the third largest religion of the Netherlands, after Christianity and Islam. While Islamizing by politicians like Geert Wilders is often seen as a threat and is associated with violence and collectivity, Buddhism is experienced as a solo religion that stands for non violence and pacifism. Symbol of this is the Dalai Lama who will visit the Netherlands on 4 and 5 June.
Poorthuis and Salemink claim in their newly published book Lotus in the low lands that Buddhism has other sides too. 'Kamikaze pilots in the second world war had Buddhist teachers. Ans also the Dalai Lama cannot avoid conflicts because of the difficult political situation of Tibet, even though the Netherlands wants to see in him a heavenly pacifist', according to Poorthuis.
In 1988 there were four thousand native Dutchmen who felt affinity with Buddhism, next to 12 thousand Buddhist immigrants from Asia. In 1999 that number was already increased to 169 thousand and six years later already to 250 thousand.
There is an enormous demand for Buddha statues and meditation courses. Famous Dutchmen like Herman Wijffels and Erica Terpstra are affiliated with Buddhism. Many Dutchmen call themselves Buddhist without knowing exactly what the religion is about.
Buddhism is often abused commercially. There are for example many corporate training offerings inspired by Buddhism. 'But instead to answer the question whether the credit crisis is caused by desire, is Buddhism used to optimize the production process'.
Student jumps from 6th floor of my school - Thai blogs, May 25, 2009
Richard reports: I just came back from the cremation of the Primary 6 student that jumped from the 6th floor of the school building last Thursday. He was a student at my school. The press speculated that he jumped because his father had scolded him for playing video games and had banned him from playing again. Very tragic. Thirteen of his school friends ordained as novice monks this morning...Did West Seattle woman die of food poisoning in Thailand? - Seattle Times, May, 2009
Land purchase through Thai spouse forbidden: Land Dept - Phuket Gazette, May 27, 2009
via ThaiVisa.com
Yesterday: International Real Estate For Sale In... Thailand - New York Times, May 26, 2009
The real estate market in Thailand’s beach resorts is fed mostly by foreign buyers, who make up more than 90 percent of the market share, according to Frank Khan, the director of Knight Frank Thailand’s residential department...Military harrassment forces aid group out of Thai camp - Radio Australia, May 22, 2009
The international medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres has ended its relief program for refugees in northern Thailand - blaming what it calls the Thai military's scare tactics...
"Own it" - May 8, 2009
Can you really own property on Koh Samui? Interestingly, when one logs on to their website, country of residence must be specified. U.S. residents are told the offer is not available to them, but for U.K. residents no such message pops up.Thailand offers best value for money in Asia Pacific region - Travel Daily News, May 29, 2009
[Thanks to Mud for pointing this out.]Satun governor suggests tunnel in Bukit Batu - Bernama, May 31, 2009
A Thai governor has suggested that a tunnel be built to serve as a gateway between Malaysia and Thailand at Bukit Batu Puteh here, if a proposal to open the border there is realised...
[Thanks to Mud for pointing this out.]
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)"Smiles Remover" - May 8, 2009
Unusual sounding company name and slogan... Guess what they do before checking their website.
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Name your poison: 'Snake wine' seized - CNN, May, 2009
Customs officials said the snakes, mixed in a glass container containing some form of alcohol, were inside an express mail package from Thailand...Opposition raises specter of civil war in Thailand - World Politics Review, May 4, 2009
Thailand calls itself the Land of Smiles, and is known for its tropical beaches, beautiful mountains, good food and friendly people. But that may soon change. While the happy-go-lucky image of Thailand may be hard for many to shake, political observers -- and the government -- are beginning to take the possibility of a civil war much more seriously...Thai leader struggles at the center of a storm - NYT, May 6, 2009
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is attempting to stabilize a country that seems to be spinning out of control...Politically incendiary TV, radio content to be banned - Bangkok Post, May 14, 2009
No containers in Sattahip sea - Bangkok Post, May 15, 2009
Earlier: Containers full of bodies reported to have been discovered off the coast of Sattahip - PattayaOne, May 6, 2009
And on YouTube here and here.
Thanks to Tom for pointing this out.Local rally centers on plight of Hmong in Thailand - La Crosse Tribune, May 15, 2009
Hmong refugees and their supporters rallied Friday in La Crosse to call attention to the fate of 5,000 Hmong people in Thailand who could be forcibly returned to Laos...Plea for help... Annice Smoel, now stuck in Thailand - Sydney Morning Herald, May 20, 2009
Police tell of abuse from Annice Smoels in Thailand - NEWS.com.au, May 20, 2009
Children of woman facing jail in Thailand plead for her return - Melbourne Herald Sun, May 20, 2009
Thai jail mum set free - Perth Now, May 20, 2009
$3000 the price of Thai justice - The Age, May 21, 2009
...After negotiating with a detective - "he wanted the money in an envelope" - the family paid $3000 to have the charges dropped. Ms Smoel pleaded guilty to her charges - in order to leave Thailand - was fined $38 and placed on a good behaviour bond...
Bar mat mother felt 'like Schapelle Corby' - The Age, May 21, 2009
...Mrs Smoel said she had not received her passport until she was at Phuket airport and did not feel safe until she boarded a Thai Airways flight to Australia in Bangkok.
"Things work very strangely in Thailand and you get told something and then it goes backwards and you take two steps forward and then it goes backwards,'' she said...NIH spends $178,000 to study why prostitutes in Thailand have high HIV risk - FoxNews, May, 2009
...Researchers plan to interview 60 sex workers -- 36 women and 24 kathoey -- to understand the factors that make the prostitutes susceptible to HIV, including economic pressure, sex-change operations, their heavy use of drugs and a Buddhist fatalism that keeps them feeling resigned to their fate...'Spider bite' to dead backpacker - BBC News, May 21, 2009
A Sussex backpacker behaved strangely and eventually collapsed and died in Thailand after reporting a spider bite, an inquest has heard...More waterworld in Thailand - Global Post, May 7, 2009
...Khun Samut Jeen is a town in retreat. It’s also an ominous symbol of Thailand’s rising seas, which threaten to someday reach Bangkok just 15 miles north. The community, founded centuries ago, has been thoroughly probed by researchers from the capital. They’ve left behind wave-breaking barriers, meant to replace the miles of destroyed coastal vegetation that once helped keep the sea at bay...
Acclimate! - May, 2009
Magazine aimed at foreign females in Thailand... We will likely never forget this cover.Thailand's cyber cops turn up heat on Megatouch counterfeiters - Vending Times, May, 2009
Merit's distributor in Thailand, Galaxy Edu-Hitech Co., assisted police in both raids. Merit's director of government relations, Bob Fay...Family seeks answers in Seattle artist's death in Thailand - Seattle Times, May 8, 2009
..."We have no idea how they operate," said St. Onge, who lives near Fresno, Calif. "We can't just go in there like John Wayne demanding stuff. ... You have a risk of insulting them..."Thai research nurse completes Scientology volunteer minister training at the Church of Scientology of New York - Thailandnews, May 9, 2009
A Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others...Anti-elephant begging graffiti- May 10, 2009
[Thanks to Curtis for pointing this out.]Mock "Red Shirt membership application form" - translated and summarized from Phutjatkhan, May, 2009
[Thanks to Nils for pointing this out.]Seattle woman mysteriously dies in Thailand - KING5 Seattle, May 6, 2009
Family and friends of a Seattle woman who died in Thailand are demanding answers.
...Then the local Thai newspaper, the Andaman Times, reported a Norwegian tourist dying within hours of Jill in the same bungalow. Norwegian news outlet Nettavisen reports traces of cyanide found in that woman and suggests a nearby water treatment plant as the cause...
(Source: Undated postcard)Caption: National Library, Bangkok [Now a university - Sanam Luang is on the left.]
(Source: postcard circa 1920)
Caption: Nawarat Bridge in Chiang Mai
(Undated postcard)Outside of the Grand Palace compound
Update: Nils explains: The German on the left reads: Street in Bangkok after a festival procession
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Goon... - May 1, 2009
Odd advertisement on the side of a bakery truck showing a person covered in bakery items. It is not clear whether it says "goon" or "go on."Columbia Sportswear busts Thai counterfeiters - OregonLive, May 28, 2009
...First, a mob surrounded the Thai cops and Teng Sok Chheng, the alleged counterfeiting ringleader, demanding her release in a gritty town bordering Cambodia. "We decided to move from the hot spot immediately," wrote an unnamed investigator working for Columbia, the apparel and footwear company based near Beaverton.
Then during the four-hour drive to Bangkok on May 21, Thai soldiers stopped the officers, investigators and their suspect, demanding her freedom. "The soldiers eventually released us," the investigator wrote, "after the police pressed the issue that the soldiers had no authority to detain us."
To Columbia managers in Oregon, the soldiers' conduct -- and repeated phone calls during the drive from influential police and military officials -- illustrates how corruption often abets international product piracy...Thai city cheers a family legacy, and its own history - Reuters, May 29, 2009
..."Northern people value good manners, being gracious, being calm and unhurried. The family have helped preserve that culture. They still set an example..."Thailand tourist's lung tissue 'gone' after mysterious death - CNN, May, 2009
... But members of St. Onge's family said they feel the pathologist's findings, though preliminary, are enough to contradict public statements made by Thai investigators that St. Onge was the victim of food poisoning.
"I am 99.9 percent sure she did not die of food poisoning," said Ryan Kells, St. Onge's fiancee, who was with her when she died. "She suffocated to death. I am not a doctor, but I know when someone can't breath..."Teen's dream of playing football is sacked by OSAA rules - The Oregonian, May 30, 2009
They call him Tut -- and of course they do. His full name is Tut Tangtragulcharoen. He's a 17-year-old exchange student from Bangkok, Thailand, who has lived with a family in Portland for the last year. Said Tut: "All I knew of this country before being here was cowboy movies...Superjumbo makes 1st commercial flight to Bangkok - Forbes, May, 2009
An A380 jet, the world's largest passenger airliner, was to set down at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport with nearly 500 passengers from Dubai...
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Centurions - May, 2009
Roman-style centurions marching around the Ratchada Area to promote Generali Insurance.
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)Rocky Hill cameras bound for Thailand - Hartford Business, May, 2009
Thailand's army will use digital surveillance cameras made by a Rocky Hill company to fight crime, drug trafficking and terrorism in the southeast Asian...
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)BNE in Bangkok - May 31, 2009
More here, here and here
(Photo: HK for 2Bangkok.com)At a Hmong camp - May 17, 2009
HK writes: In the mid-year 2004, Thamkrabok was a place in which Hmong resided, has now been closed by the soldiers. So, it caused some group of Hmong to remain there and 7,800 Lao Hmong refugees escaping from Laos have been living at Ban Huay Nam Kwaw, Kaek Noi sub-district, Phetchabun province. It is Thai government’s duties and responsibilities to address. A group of Hmong deceived other Hmong people in Laos to immigrate to Thailand by claiming that the United States would support them as they were Hmong’s lineage. Some of Hmong people claimed that they ran away from Laos because of genocide. In fact, there are no any policies to get Hmong back to the United States, but Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, used to launch his campaign to support these Hmong people. Formerly, Laos had a distrust of these Hmong people because they were not sure whether these Hmong people were a group of Lao people against Laos or not and thought that Thailand gave them a hand. After discussing, Laos was pleased to get these Hmong people back home. At the present, a Police Lieutenant Colonel in Khao Kor district sent back 2,600 Hmong people to Laos in 14 groups. In 2009, many Hmong people will have been sent back to Laos. Thailand is well-known as a humanitarian country. We are now taking care of more than 100,000 refugees fleeing from the border fight and 2 million illegal labors immigrating from Laos, Burma and Cambodia. Although there are a lot of poor Thai people waiting for help, it is necessary to give them a hand because they are deeply distressed.
(Photo: HK for 2Bangkok.com)
(Photo: HK for 2Bangkok.com)
(Photo: Monkey for 2Bangkok.com)Above: The picture shows the motorcycles parked in front of the Pattani’s Muang district. Every motorcycle is required to open its seat covers for the security check as shown in the picture
Pattani fair - May, 2009
Monkey reports: The atmosphere of the charity parade of the local governmental units, led by Pattani governor urging the public to visit the 25th Pattani Red Cross Fair, hosted on May 1 -10, 2009. The security is beefed up, especially for gateways.
(Photo: Monkey for 2Bangkok.com)
(Photo: Monkey for 2Bangkok.com)
(Photo: Monkey for 2Bangkok.com)Above: The banner reads: Come to visit the Red Cross Fair and the Pattani annual festival, hosted in front of the Town Hall - 1-10 May, 2009 - Pure heart - the Red Cross helps people
(Photo: Monkey for 2Bangkok.com)The banner reads: Pattani promotes good health condition
On the blue sign carried in front of the banner: Pattani 1st Defense volunteer troop
(Photo: Monkey for 2Bangkok.com)On the blue sign carried in front of the banner: Pattani 1st Defense volunteer troop
(Photo: Monkey for 2Bangkok.com)On the arch: Pattani’s health fitness without obesity-promoting good health condition - 116th anniversary of Thai Red Cross - 150th anniversary of World Red Cross
