State of the Union Drinking Game

Hangover Ahead

Tonight at 6pm PST, Bush goes on the TV to tell us all how prosperous and happy we are, how well the war in Iraq is going, the quick work of FEMA in New Orleans, progress against soaring health care costs, the battle against the highest budget deficit in American history, etc. etc.

Time to get down to your local liquor store and invite your friends over for the classic SOTU Drinking Game. But why, oh why, isn't "9/11" included on the chart? Didn't Bush pull out that war horse over 20 times last year?

The general rules of this game are no different from any other drinking game. A drink is either a shot or a good gulp from a beer (or cider). Different events call for different numbers of drinks and all you do is watch the speech and play along. If all goes well, you'll be unconscious by the time they show the other party's response.

Drinking Game Link

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UPDATE:

I've just obtained an advance copy of tonight's speech:

(Hey, Karl. Here's the first draft of my "State of the Union" speech. I've put some questions for ya in parenthisaurs. Let me know what you think. Best -W)

MY STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH by George W. Bush

Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, extreme members of Congress, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children of all ages.

As we boldly enter a new year of hurling before us, I've come before you to tell you that Freedom is spreading like cancer in the Middle East, our economy is even robustier than it was last year and, if we all work together in this coming year, there will be countless more fish to fry, or bake if you're watching your cholesterol.

Tonight, with more and more Americans going back to work, with our nation an active force for goodnicity in the world, the state of our union is truly flamboyiscious. (SP?)

This past year, we have accomplished many things that no one expected and some outright feared.

Our No Child Left Behind Act has not only increased our youngins' ability to read and do math, but we have decreased the student population dramatically, nationwide. Now, when a child graduates high school, not only will he or she be able to print his or her name tag while asking "Do you want fries with that?" they'll be able to add up the menu total.

The past year, we've reframed and totally regurgitated Medicare, creating thousands of jobs in emergency room care.

We have added two million jobs in non-auto construction related fields.

We have plugged the holes of the bankruptcy dykes, who threatened to cheat honest bankers and credit card employers out of their hard squandered cash.

We have tackled such hard questions as how frightened are you of Social Security disappearing, how many hurricanes can FEMA handle and how fast can the House pass a bill when no one is looking?

But we must not rest on our laureates.

The year ahead will present us with challenges both overseas, at home and elsewhere.

I'm going to remind you all that we're living in hysteric times. The decisions we make today will help shape the direction of events for years, even weeks, to come.

Now, recently, there has been a hornet's nest of inflappatory (SP?) rhetoric concerning my involvement with so called "domestic spying." It's true, I have allowed NASA to spy on Americans but let me remind you of one important fact: the world changed after 9/11.

Think about it. 9/10? You're riding your bike whistling a happy tune. 9/12? You're scared stiff. In between? 9/11. Bingo.

If any of you don't remember 9/11, we were attacked by a group of drooling madmen who hate us for our freedoms, so I decided to lessen them.

And, if NASA can safely land people on the Moon, it can handle this finely.

Our "domestic spying" program isn't. (Does that make sense, Karl?) It's a program devoted to "terrorist surveillance" or, as I call it, "terrorist tattling."

If al Qaeda is talking to you? E-mailing you? Sending you a candy-gram? I want to know about it. This program only involves American citizens who are calling known terrorists in another country or another state. We have a list of terrorist groups we're monitoring from al Qaeda to al PETA and al Quaker.

The terrorist tattler program is necessary to protect America from attacks either within our own borders or even closer. Terrorists will use every available weapon at their disposal, from dirty bombs to free speech, to break the will of the American people. I vow I will never let that happen. That's my job.

Some people say that I've broken the law. That's not true. A President has inherent authorities given to him by the Constitution. One of them is breaking the law. I hope this puts an end to the issue.

Oh, yeah, I don't know Jack Abramoff, either.

This year, I'm asking Congress to help me in passing bills that will help all American people struggle.

We're setting a goal of creating two million more jobs, some of them actually in this country.

We will tackle affordable Health Care insurance the way we did Medicare. By this time, next year, Americans will be dancing in the streets, unless they're too old or too sick.

We will help an additional 200,000 unemployed workers get training for a new job. If you could build a Bronco, you can flip a burger. It's the American way.

Smirking Chimp Link

Islamic Justice in Indonesia

Aceh Caning

I read about this incident a few weeks ago in the Jakarta Post, but never bothered to mention it on my blog until this photo appeared today at The Cellar. And I don't remember if the male was also canned. Do read the comments which range from idiotic to supportive, to non-judgmental and questioning. I've never seen so many comments about any photograph posted on The Cellar.

Another day, another image of a man getting off on being inhumane and mean to a woman. In this case it's official policy though. It's Indonesia, where they have Islamic Sharia law, which takes its rules from the Quran. This woman is charged with the offense of staying in the same house as her boyfriend. She's taken in front of the Mosque and beaten for all to watch.

The Cellar Link

Memoirs of the Geisha Banned in China

Banned in China

I guess that if the Islamic Council can ban "Black Metal" in Malaysia, then the Chinese government should be able to ban Memoirs of a Geisha, in order to preserve law-and-order and prevent any possible hostilities between the Chinese and the Japanese.

Bad vibes between the Chinese and Japanese? Nah, not possible.

New movie Memoirs of a Geisha has been banned in China amid fears it will encourage widespread anti-Japanese ideologies.

The casting of Chinese actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li in the Japanese drama has already caused outrage in China - because many regard geishas as prostitutes.

With Sino-Japanese relations reportedly at their lowest point in decades, authorities fear the film will revive resentment over the horrific sexual abuse suffered by thousands of Chinese women at the hands of Japanese troops during the Second World War.

The state-run Film Bureau initially approved the film, but have now retracted their decision - citing the film as "too sensitive" and having "complex" problems.

Ireland Online Link

Islamic Malaysia Bans Black Rock

Black Metal Guitarist

I remember back in my college days when I first heard Ozzie Osbourne on his first album, and said "Nah" as I was much more into Joni Mitchell, Jackson Brown and other singer-songwriters. Black Sabbath seemed more appealing to suicidal depressives who smoked way too much pot, and that wasn't my thing.

But I've always supported the right of those who want to rock, so I find the latest Islamic ruling from Malaysia more than disturbing.

Black Metal culture has been declared as a deviation from Islamic teachings and those found practising it could be penalised under syariah law.

The National Fatwa Council ruled that Black Metal culture was totally against the syariat (Islamic principles) and could lead its followers to being murtad (apostate).

The council issued the decree after deliberating on the matter at its bi-monthly meeting yesterday.

"We discussed the issue at length to understand what Black Metal is all about and its effect on our culture," council chairman Prof Datuk Shukor Husin told newsmen after the meeting.

"It has been established that Black Metal practices are way against the syariat and every effort must be taken to stop its spread."

Prof Shukor said the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) was working with state religious departments to amend the syariah laws to give power to the departments to act against those engaging in Black Metal culture.

"It may take some time for the law to be enforced. In the meantime, we hope other relevant authorities would play their role in putting a stop to this culture," he said.

Prof Shukor said although Black Metal was just a form of music, its culture often led its followers to worship Satan, to rebel, kill and incite hatred and irreligion.

Black Metal culture, he said, also influenced its followers to perform controversial rituals such as drinking one's blood mixed with goat blood and burning the Quran.

"When a Muslim burns the Quran, his action could be considered as murtad. It is our responsibility to ensure this does not happen,'' he said.

The Star Link

Boing Boing Link

VADER is on the list of 228 metal bands banned in Islamic Malaysia. The National Fatwa Council issued the religious decree against the 'black metal cult,' citing practices in which members stamp on the holy Koran, drink alcohol and freely engage in sex. Council chair Shukor Husin said the cult's practices, based on U.S. rock band METALLICA which has used symbols including an inverted cross, went against the teachings of Islam and could propel a Muslim out of the religion. However he said, merely listening to heavy metal songs was not a crime.

Road Runner Records Link

Flickr and Creative Commons

Singapore Ballerina by Carl Parkes

I just received a rather sweet request from a high school student in Utah, who would like to use one of my Flickr photos in her art project. Several times yearly I receive such requests from individuals and non-profits, and I always say Yes with great enthusiasm.

Hi Carl-

You have some fantastic photographs! I understand you have creative commons license that does not allow derivative works unless permission is granted by the author of the work.

I am 16 years old and am taking AP art in high school, I am also a ballet dancer. In addition, my father works in Irian Jaya Indonesia, so am deeply influenced by many of your photos.

There is one in particular that I would like to paint. The title of it on flickr, is "singapore ballerina." I am unsure if this is how I go about asking for permission to do this, so forgive my ignorance.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Kristina P.

Utah

How to Outwit Chinese Internet Censors

Tianamen Showdown

Here's a short but highly useful story today in the New York Times about how to get around the increasingly rampant internet censorship in China, especially after the recent surrender of Google to pressures from the Chinese government. This information may also be useful in other countries which routinely censor the internet such as North Korea, Burma, and even Singapore to some extent.

When Google announced last week that it would censor its new search service in China, the company became, to many, the latest component in that country's sophisticated system of information control.

With strategies ranging from automated keyword filtering and Web site blocking to Internet traffic surveillance, the Chinese government is unmatched in its ability to censor and monitor its citizens online.

Of course, no system is perfect.

The OpenNet Initiative (www.opennet.net), an international human rights project linking researchers from the University of Toronto, Harvard Law School and Cambridge University, tracks Internet censorship and the techniques used to evade it. To surf the Web in China and elsewhere without censorship and in marginal safety, said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor and a member of the initiative, the primary tool is an old standby: the proxy server.

A proxy server is simply a generic computer through which people who want to be anonymous drive Web traffic before it reaches their own machines. This helps dissociate a computer address from the Web sites its user has visited.

It's not perfect. You never know, for instance, how trustworthy any proxy really is, and servers go up and down unpredictably. But people regularly use proxy servers for all kind of reasons — from the political to the pornographic.

Every day in China, Mr. Palfrey said, an underground economy of proxy server addresses comes alive — usually connecting to servers made available by volunteers around the globe. These addresses are passed along and traded, using elaborately coded language, on electronic bulletin board systems or chat channels.

Elsewhere on the Web, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) helps maintain Tor, a communications network that helps make Internet communications anonymous, and it appears to be accessible from within China. Peacefire.org offers a program called The Circumventor that lets anyone turn a Windows-based machine into a proxy, allowing others to use it to circumvent local Internet restrictions.

Even two small commercial companies, Dynamic Internet Technology and UltraReach Internet, offer software or Web services that try to poke holes in China's "great firewall."

Of course, these precious few leaks are most likely little consolation for the dozens of Chinese citizens languishing in prison for saying or doing the wrong thing online. And they are all the more reason that human rights workers keep discussions of circumvention tactics short — and vague.

"I don't ever want to make it any harder for people," Mr. Palfrey said.

New York Times Link

Cambodia Photographer -- Steve Goodman

Steve Goodman



Wowie Zowie Howie Bar by Steve

Once a successful computer engineer and C.E.O. during the dot-com days here in San Francisco, Steve Goodman took the big plunge after the dot.com collapse and moved over the Southeast Asia, settling in Phnom Penh, where he is doing god-knows-what but also cranking out some very good photos of the country.

But you've got to decide when you visit his blog: do you want the temples of Phnom Penh or interior shots of some of the bars and nightclubs?

I thought so........

Mythical Dude Blog by Steve Goodman

Paul Dorsey -- Professional Book Reviewer

Paul Dorsey

Technoratic tags on "Thailand" rarely bring up anything worthwhile, but today the search uncovered a relatively new blog by Paul Dorsey, the book review editor for The Nation. He's also got other obsessions, such as Google Earth, but his book reviews are well worth reading if only to get the critical inside of books published about Thailand.

Thai Lite 2: The Refill by S Tsow

Private Dancer by Stephen Leather

Wave of Destruction by Eric Kraus

Thailand Confidential by Jerry Hopkins

Bad Fashion in Bangkok

Bangkok Hippie

The cool kids at Bangkok Recorder have just started a new feature about bad fashion in Bangkok, including the hippie shown above. It's hilarious, though the following link is loaded with pictures and will take some time to download on a 56K modem.

Bangkok Recorder Link

Dream Travel Jobs

Yukata Disco by Carl Parkes

I've been a travel writer for almost 20 years and have traveled around the world, and written six guidebooks to Southeast with Moon Publications and National Geographic. I've also updated and written original reviews for several hundred hotels in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore for Reed Travel/Star Service, the largest travel-trade publication in the world. Also, staff journalist for two years at Pacific Asia Travel Association, back in the days when they had an American publication outlet. I've also written for scuba diving magazines and photography specialties.

I know the score.

And then USA Today runs a story on dream travel jobs, and I almost want to throw all the authors out the window for their lying ways. There is NOT a hint of truth in any of these profiles, but they continue to feed the public hunger for notion of travel employee as gifted bird.

I've done most of these jobs in one form or another, and have the real lowdown on these so-called professions.

Jen Leo gets sick and tired of my cynicism, so I don't bother making comments on her excellent blog, but somebody, somewhere needs to drill down some sense of realism in this travel profession. Rolf Potts is also skeptical of my jaded views, but then he did the Round-the-World thing last year and hasn't peeped a word about the reality of that event (disaster?).

Nobody should write for free. Nobody should write for slave wages. Nobody should promote websites that don't pay or pay shitty wages. Thirty years ago the going rate for travel writers was $1 per word.

What are you getting paid today? Blogs will never get you coverage and will not impress any real editor. Don't do it. Don't kill what remains of the travel writing industry.

Who is killing the travel writing industry? It ain't me. I'm just lighting a candle over the corpse.

Ask someone what he or she'd do if they won the lottery and chances are the T-word will come up. For many, travel is the dream realized, the ultimate reward for a job well done.

But there are workers out there who don't need to hit the jackpot to take off. Travel is their job, and it doesn't involve herding passengers onto airplanes or swabbing ship decks, either.

USA TODAY's Jayne Clark looks at five of the best jobs and profiles those who have them.

USA Today Link

Tom Swick Does Key West

Nikko by Carl Parkes

Last week, the two good fellows who own the incredibly rich franchise known as WorldHum asked their buddy Tom Swick to pen a few notes about the week-long literary fest in Key West, and Tommy Boy came through in spades. Tom can write like your best buddy in your favorite neighborhood bar, who just returned from a wildly successful fishing trip and not only offers you some fresh trout but also his heartfelt advice and colorful stories.

Tom Swick is a great travel writer because he doesn't act or write like a travel writer. He writes like your friend. He attends the conference but seems half indifferent to most of the speakers with the notable exception of Pico Iyer, who dazzles everyone with his stories but mostly his philosophies about life and love and the art and craft of successful travel writing.

Video Night in Kathmandu has always been one of my favorite travel books, though I always wished Pico had made it a plural night. Just sounds better. But I digress.

Tom is such a casual and cool character that he takes the time to chat with street people and street performers, who honestly seem to be more interesting than the windbags going on inside the tent. And he takes notes, and then translates the notes into prose. It is so simple and so honest, so why don't more travel writers use this simple technique? Beats me.

Anyway, Tom filed five reports with WorldHum and all of them are worth reading. Another view comes from another reporter, who found the Key West event all puffed up and full of itself.

I'm a travel writer and have been know to get all full of myself at times, so I understand the dilemma. Talk, boast, pride, SATW awards, and all that other crap you can take with you to the next life. Yeah.

WorldHum Welcomes Tom Swick

Tom Swick Reports from Key West -- Day One

Tom Swick Reports from Key West -- Day Two

Tom Swick Reports from Key West -- Day Three

Tom Swick Reports from Key West -- Day Four

Tom Swick Reports from Key West -- Day Five

And then there's this cheerful but revealing follow up story about the Key West event:

Lost amid the aimless speech of renowned travel writers
By Chauncey Mabe
Books Editor
Posted January 15 2006

Sometimes the main purpose of literary events seems to lie in giving writers the opportunity to show how inept they can be when they let their mouths, as opposed to their fingers, do the talking.

Take last weekend's Key West Literary Seminar, which gathered top travel writers for three days of bloviation on the meaning of their profession in the not-so-brave new world of the 21st century.

Keynote speakers Pico Iyer and Tim Cahill offered opposing examples of the way writers can make fools of themselves in talking extemporaneously. Iyer, delivering the opening night's John Hersey Memorial Address, spoke with a rapid, breathtaking grace, tossing off thought-provoking ideas like a parade Santa with a bag of candy.

Which was wonderful. Really, wonderful. And yet Iyer's lecture grew wearisome in its unparsed intellectual weight. Iyer would have been more wonderful still had he perhaps blocked up a few ideas, jotted down an outline, spoken to some specific point.

Cahill, a writer known for his use of humor, also spoke without notes when he took the podium for the John Malcolm Brinnin Memorial Talk on Saturday evening. Judging from the ungainly pauses and vast distances between punch lines, Cahill had never spoken in public before. At least, not in English.

Unintentional amusement was offered by many writers, especially in the naked ego category. Barry Lopez, speaking in tones not heard since Moses descended the mount, said that once we've been to the places he's been, met the people he's met, had the spiritual experiences he's had, then we too can go home in the serene knowledge that everyday life is what really matters.

Kira Salak displayed an appalling ignorance of her own literary tradition, declaring the world is yet to be discovered by women, all the classic-era travel writers having been men. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, as the careers of Frances Trollope, Freya Stark and Beryl Markham attest.

That's not to say Key West was anything less than the usual thrilling literary experience. While the great minds on stage never arrived at consensus -- beyond the obvious "the inner journey is what matters" -- they provided much stimulation and entertainment.

Perhaps out of politeness, no one pointed out the obvious flaw in the "inner journey" idea of travel writing, which is that most writers aren't nearly as interesting as they think they are, and surely less interesting than the places they visit. Inner journey, indeed. Tell it to your mom.

To their credit, the writers grappled bravely with what novelist Kate Wheeler called "the costs of travel." Gretel Ehrlich said "almost every ecosystem in the world is in collapse," while Lawrence Millman said the bodies of Inuits are "toxic waste dumps" containing eight times the American average for mercury; all "concerned" travel writers should be radical environmentalists, he said. Others rued the "McDonalds-ization" of the world.

Indeed, the writers even hinted at what became obvious to any attentive listener, which is that travel writing is among the trivial genres. Apart from self-discovery and a cool lifestyle for the writer, what do these journeys and the resulting verbiage mean? More than one writer implied that only by crossing the frontier to journalism does travel writing gain heft. "There is a nobility about making the effort to be a witness" to a troubled world, Wheeler said. "All good writing is reporting," added Eddy Harris.

But the best part of the seminar, as always, lay not with enlightenment, but access. If you weren't satisfied with an author's remarks on stage, you could easily talk to them personally afterward. For example, I found Pico Iyer happily pinned in a corner next to the men's room, signing autographs and chatting. I asked about the morality of travel in an age of global warming, social unrest and terror.

"In the modern world travel does all kinds of damage, it is true," Iyer said. "But there is good, too, just in the fact of going to different places and meeting different people. The rest of the world loves America, but you might not know that if you don't travel.

"I take very seriously the idea of `global neighborhood.' It's good to get out and meet the neighbors."

Chauncey Mabe can be reached at cmabe@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4710.

Sun Sentinel Link

New York Times on Cambodia

Cambodia Portraits

Are you an aspiring travel writer, looking for inspiration and good instructions on the art and craft of the genre? Then run, run, run from anything ever published by the New York Times. Don't believe me? In one of the most arrogant, misguided, self-centered, and off balance travel articles of the year, the NYT wants you to see Cambodia as an ultra-rich tourist, just so you can avoid the realities and wonders of this marvelous country. The attitude is sheer stupidity, overlaid with smug satisfaction that you will be protected by your wealth and never subjected to the long and torturous history of the country, not to mention its perilous present.

Somebody should send this writer to Tuol Seng, to get the Raffles out of his system. Excuse me, I'm gonna puke.

In almost every part of the country, you can find a conceptually and architecturally ambitious hotel: In mountainous Ratanakiri, there's the Terres Rouges Lodge, a former provincial governor's lakeside residence that has, Time Asia said last July, "the best bar in the middle of nowhere." On the Sanker River in Battambang, Cambodia's second-largest city, there's La Villa, a 1930 house that in October opened as a six-room hotel filled with Art Deco antiques. And sometime this summer, you should be able to head south to Kep and stay at La Villa de Monsieur Thomas, a 1908 oceanfront mansion that's being transformed into a French restaurant ringed with bungalows.

Cambodia is not alone in its luxury revolution. Since the mid-1990's, the former French colonies of Southeast Asia have made enormous leaps in catering to tourists who prefer plunge pools to bucket showers. From the forests of Laos to the beaches of Vietnam to the ruins of Cambodia, you can find well-conceived, well-outfitted, well-run hotels that will sleep you in style for hundreds of dollars a night.

Less than a decade ago, there were no hotels with infinity pools, no restaurants serving fricassee of wild boar, no silk merchants who took Visa. (Also, no paved roads.) The foreigners who climbed the 328 steps of Mount Phousi were usually backpackers who sought guidance from Lonely Planet's "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring." Today, the traveler with a Lonely Planet in one hand is likely to have a Mandarina Duck carry-on in the other.

Outside, however, it was a different story: A guest assistant from Hôtel de la Paix carried my bag through the parking lot - past a new terminal designed to handle 1.5 million passengers a year when it opens this summer - to a Lexus S.U.V. As we drove into town, listening to Morcheeba on the car's iPod Mini, the driver and I discussed development on the airport road: I could remember when it had few hotels and restaurants; he could remember when it had none.

At la Paix, an artfully serene white palace designed by the landscape architect Bill Bensley, another assistant led me into the expansive arts lounge, where I sipped fresh orange juice and split my attention between the movie "Indochine," which was being projected on the wall, and the youthful staff members, who moved about with a surprising sureness of purpose.

Soon, an assistant took me to my room - dark woods, creamy fabrics, functioning Wi-Fi and another iPod - and cheerfully helped me plan my stay: a trip to Angkor Wat (with an "excellence guide," he wrote on his notepad) and, almost as important, a local SIM card for my cellphone ("first thing in the morning"). I wandered to the second-floor pool, which flowed like a river from the spa and down to the courtyard, at whose center grew a knotty ficus. Everywhere: calm. The hotel was aptly named.

New York Times Link

A Balinese Artist

Murni with Art

One of Bali's leading female artist recently died of cancer, but is lovingly remembered in this eulogy:

Murni would have fitted into feminist literature, but all she had wanted to do was to paint in order to get rid of the traumatic experience inflicted on her when she was a child. She also said: "I paint to feel that I exist."

Murni exalted her pain by reclaiming her body for herself, celebrating it for her own pleasure, represented on her canvases with nude, deformed, body parts. She was inspired by her instincts that were nurtured by trauma, experience, fantasies and surreal dreams.

Murni had the courage to follow her own path, her art sweeping like a fresh wind through the dusty spaces of myth and legend, celebrating her body parts not for the sake of others' gazes but as an expression of personal well-being, and a way to get rid of the trauma inflicted on her. "I paint to rid myself of that trauma," she revealed when I visited her in December, "but it returns again and again." And while the saw or the knives may have disappeared from between the images of her genitalia, the sharp edges remain, even in a painting titled as peacefully as where the falling leaves are pointed.

May the Murni Museum she was initiating in the last days of her life stand as a testament to her courage, and her contribution to the development of art in Bali. And when Bali's women follow suit, Murni will be reborn in a new cycle of life, for Bali and for Indonesia.

Planet Mole Link

Open Society Singapore?

Bugis Street Transvestites

Mr. Wang may get tired of rehashing old Singapore politics, but he has a wonderful response to some idiotic Singapore professor who claims that Singapore is an "open society." Among the semi-democratic countries in the world, Singapore is almost certainly the most tightly controlled and monitored, and in no fashion could ever be called an "open society." Mr. Wang Says So:

Sigh. Tsai Kee, I know you're a PAP MP and all that, but what is the point of letters like that? Facts are facts, the rest are just opinions. Here, Mr Wang will provide you the facts, and you go and rethink your opinion:

May 2005: Police investigate Singaporean filmmaker Martyn See for making a political film. The Straits Times suggests that Martyn See should stick to making comedies, not serious films.

June 2005: The police deny the gay group Fridae from organising a public event, saying that this would be contrary to public interests. Fridae has to move the event to Phuket, Thailand.

July 2005:: The National Kidney Foundation launches yet another defamation suit to silence a critic who's trying to point out its financial improprieties. This time, the NKF loses, but it's the first time they've lost.

July 2005 The Singapore Government denies Mr Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan entry into Singapore and deported him. Mr Yeshua, a democracy activist and a member of NGO Nonviolence International, had been travelling here to conduct a non-violence workshop for Singaporean activists.

August 2005: 12 anti-riot police officers armed with shields and batons put an end to a tiny demonstration held by 4 peaceful people standing quietly in a row wearing T-shirts asking for more transparency from, amongst other institutions, the NKF.

August 2005: Police allow an anti-death penalty group to hold a memorial concert for the deceased Shanmugam Murugesu, but ban the group from showing Shanmugam's face on any "publicity platform/material such as internet website, displays, banners, posters, T-shirts and any other paraphernalia".

September 2005: Buangkok residents put up cardboard cutouts of white elephants in front of the Buangkok MRT station to protest against its non-opening. The authorities immediately launch police investigations to find out who did it.

October 2005: Blogger-academic Cherian George writes an article about the government's use of "calibrated coercion" to stifle the expression of dissenting opinions. The Prime Minister's Office immediately slammed Cherian for his dissenting opinion.

October 2005: Senior lecturers at Warwick University in the UK vote against setting up a branch campus in Singapore due to worries about limits on academic freedom.

October 2005: Singapore is ranked 140th in the world for press freedom.

November 2005: International NGO, Reporters without Borders, writes an open letter to PM Lee Hsien Loong offering 10 suggestions to improve press freedom in Singapore. The organisation offers to meet PM Lee to give him a personal presentation of what can be done to ensure press freedom in Singapore.

December 2005: The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) expresses alarm over the recent ruling by a Singaporean High Court judge to dismiss a lawsuit which charged the country's public institutions with trampling the rights of their citizens to free assembly and free speech.

December 2005: Benny Lim, a theatre director, is ordered by the Media Development Authority to remove all references to the death penalty in his new play.

Tell me again, Tsai Kee, with a straight face, that we are an open society. I'll try not to laugh.

Commentary Singapore Link

Tiara Lestari Invites You Back to Bali

Tiara Lestari

What a sweet girl. Tiara Lestari, Indonesian model and currently Singapore resident, visited Bali for the past New Years Eve celebration and found the island essentially void of tourists. The economy has been devastated, hotels are running under 20% occupancy, mass layoffs and reductions in work schedules, etc. She makes her points in her excellent blog.

I can't help but noticed that there weren't many people from Europe or North America the way it used to be. If you are reading this and you are from those regions of the world... I have a message for you: Screw your government's Travel Warning and come here. Get yourself a ticket and fly here where the smile of a thousand Gods awaits you. Call me simple minded, but there is no war happening here. It was an act of a few people stupid enough to ruin an entire population.

I am simply saying that Bali is not like any other place in the world. And if you're not here.. you are missing out. Period. These people here deserve to have their livelihood back to where it was before the stupid bombs. And you, my European and American friends, deserve to be here. A place where a thousand year old temple exists happily side by side with fast food restaurants and the first Hard Rock hotel in the world. Where pop culture meets old culture with such ease that they do actually live happily ever after.

Tiara Lestari Blog

Girls with Guns

The Bible of Over Kill

Beer blogger Chris Myrick has recently made two brilliant moves. First, he's apparently reading Magnoy's Samsara, one of the most underappreciated yet awesome blogs about Asia.

And he's just posted his best.post.ever. Simon, ESWN, and Peking Duck can't compare with his genius. Just savor the way it rolls over your tongue:

Girls with Guns
Girls with Guns
Girls with Guns.

AsiaPundit Link to Girls with Guns

Penang Fish Story

Something Fishy

Must be all those industrial pollutants.

FISHY TALE: (From left) Mohd Faisal and Johari showing the fish they caught in the sea off Pantai Jerejak in Penang Friday afternoon.
PENANG: Three friends found an unusual catch in their fishing net at the sea off Pantai Jerejak in Bayan Bay here – an ikan ketang (spotted butterfish) that looked like it had two tails.

K. Vadiveloo, 35, Mohd Faisal Abdullah, 36, and Johari Harun, 31, who all work with a concrete company, came across the fish early yesterday afternoon.

“This is the first time we have caught such an unusual fish,” said Vadiveloo, adding that the place was their favourite fishing spot.

However, a check on the Internet revealed that what they thought were two tails were actually the fins of the fish, and the tail was actually missing.

The Star Link

Thaksin Sells Out -- Condoms for Africa

Private Dancer by Stephen Leather

The prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, has sold his telecommunications company to the government of Singapore, making his family another billion or so richer. But then, when has Thaksin ever really cared about the people of Thailand, when he can rape, pillage and plunder to increase his personal fortune?

Never.

The deal, valued as high as US.8 billion and representing the largest [sellout] in Thai history, would be a watershed for the telecom sector, development of which has been dominated by Shin since Mr Thaksin founded it 22 years ago.

Shin, 49% owned by the Shinawatra and related Damapong families, holds a key stake in Advanced Info Service, the country's leading cellular operator, as well as Shin Satellite, the broadcaster iTV, the budget airline Thai Air Asia and the consumer finance firm Capital OK.

Reportedly, Temasek, a major shareholder of Singapore Telecom, will focus on AIS, with Shin Satellite and non-telecom companies separated from the deal.

Mr Thaksin, when asked about the transaction yesterday, declined to comment, saying only, ''Ask my children''.

The prime minister and his wife transferred their holdings in Shin to their children and relatives six years ago prior to Mr Thaksin taking office.

And in lighter news, the government of Thailand has decided to help out those poor, suffering Africans with the absolutely, fabulously generous donation of 50,000 condoms. I wonder how much that cost them? Did Thaksin spring for this out of his own pocket?

I doubt it.

Thailand on Friday donated 50,000 condoms to seven African countries as part of the kingdom's "forward engagement" policy with Africa in the fight against HIV/AIDS, UN officials said.

The prophylaxis, provided by Thailand's foreign ministry and health ministry, will be shipped by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Uganda to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"The plans for this condom shipment emanate from a workshop held last year in Kenya in which 25 senior-level participants from national HIV/AIDS councils, non-health ministries, relevant non-governmental organizations and community leaders dealing with HIV/AIDS attended from the African region, with 15 visiting Thai experts on HIV/AIDS from the Ministry of Public Health, NGOs, academia and the private sector," said the UNDP in a statement.

Lao American Couple Shot in Thailand

Nong Khai Victims

Readers of this blog are probably familiar with the murder last week of two Lao Americans in Nong Khai in northeastern Thailand, just across the Mekong from the Lao capital of Vientiane. Thai police are now investigating the possibility that the couple were murdered by Lao secret service agents, but no definite results to date.

The murder is now being discussed over at Nanaplaza chat site, with some insightful thoughts about the possible motives, along with the sardonic humor so typical of the commentators. A few excerpts:

BANGKOK, Thailand A Lao-American couple living in Fairview who claim to be members of a Lao royal family were shot to death Wednesday in northeastern Thailand, police said. (For video from Thailand television click here.

Anouwong Sethathirath IV and Oulayvanh Sethathirath, 49 and 38 years old respectively, were killed at a Buddhist monastery in Nong Khai, near the border with Laos, said police Lt. Jeerawat Thammasorn, who was unwilling to give any further details about the victims.

No arrests or suspects have been announced in the case.

A Web site operated by the couple, www.sethathirath.com, identifies Anouwong as a prince and Oulayvanh as a princess, and says that Sethathirath is the royal line of Laos' Sisattanakhanahut kingdom, also known as Lan Xang.

The couple lived in Fairview. Both were U.S. citizens.

Lt. Jeerawat said they were shot in a pavilion at the monastery at about 10 a.m. The Thai television station ITV reported that witnesses said that gunmen wearing coats and black sunglasses walked into the pavilion and killed them. Nong Khai is 320 miles north of Bangkok.

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This fella was a genuine prince, since all in the male line were called Chao. He was descended from the Prince of Wiengchan*, who rebelled against Rama III and was defeated. Sawang Wattana was of the royal family of Luang Prabang, who were made rulers of all Laos by the French.

Wonder what happened. Clearly an execution.

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p.s. Not good for one's karma to murder people in a Buddhist monastery ...

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Link with anti-communist activities possible motive for murder of Laotian couple -

A Laotian American couple apparently of Lao royal descent who were shot dead in northeastern Thailand might have been targeted by Laos on suspicions that they were working against the communist regime, police said Thursday.

An official at the Laotian Embassy in Bangkok denied his government played any role in Wednesday's slaying near the Thai-Laos border. U.S. Embassy officials could not be reached for comment.

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Americans trying to bring down a foreign government? That doesn't sound right.

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Yeah. How dare they interfer with the wonderful benevolent government of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. The nerve of some of these Laotians ... Bet they even wanted free elections or something.

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Is the US in the business of reinstalling monarchies now? Slippery slope that. Or maybe a nice little civil war in Laos is just what SE Asia needs? Maybe spill over the borders? Nice headache for Vietnam and China.

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So you presume they were evil agents and running dogs of the corrupt evil American fascist regime. Got any evidence, other than their American citizenship?

To quote from the ORIGINAL news item in this thread:

"Although some refugees from Laos have been involved in violent activities against the country's communist government, the couple was not known to be involved with them."

They weren't even members of the formerly ruling Laotian royal family. The Sethatirath dynasty was ousted by the Thais in 1828. Sort of like the Bourbons trying to regain power in France???

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I agree. Still, we are arguing about something we both really know nothing about. Even The Nation is just guessing at the reason they were murdered. One could as easily claim that right wing Thais were concerned that the couple were suporting a movement to "restore" Isaan to Laotian rule -- despite the reports they were not involved in politics. This used to be a serious worry during the military regimes of the 1950s and early '60s, and a lot of Isaan politicians were "eliminated" because of it.

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Right. It depends on what you mean by agitation I guess. If the refugees intend to seize power from the communists and start a civil war that disrupts the entire region and causes a bloodbath they could certainly be tagged as agitators. If on the other hand they just want to go home and act like constructive citizens they would probably be welcome. They may find that their parent's palaces have been turned into government offices but that's the way it goes with revolutions. As the British Loyalists discovered at Yorktown in 1781....all of their world is turned upside down.

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Another news snippet from North Carolina....

In an e-mail Thursday to family members, the couple described the circumstances of the killings: "Phillip and Ashley were traveling alone for the first time since we've seen them here. ... They made an unscheduled stop at a small temple, just off the highway, and while Ashley was filming Phillip in front of an ancient statue, someone came up and shot her in the neck and then chased Phillip further into the temple and shot him twice. The spontaneity of the attack, two gunmen, leads us all to believe that we have all been followed in our time here."

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NanaPlaza Link

Indonesia, Islam & Tolerance

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir

A surprisingly frank article, both critical and complimentary to Islam, was posted a few days ago in the Jakarta Post, which summarized the degree of tolerance practiced by the Muslims of Indonesia. Since the article is now sequestered back in the archives (registration required), I'll just post the entire story to keep this thread alive. The link at the bottom will only work if you've registered with the Jakarta Post.

But I'll give credit to the Jakarta Post for having the courage to post the results of the survey, which probably angered many Muslims in the local community.

Although they deny the claims they are a breeding ground for terrorists, pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) are a fertile spot for conservative, intolerant views of other faiths, a new study reveals.

Research conducted by the Jakarta-based International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) at 20 schools in West Java showed a generally held belief among students and clerics that there was no compromising on the matter of religion.

Tolerance should only be limited to sociopolitical and economic issues, they told researchers in the study, released Tuesday.

In practical terms, their unbending view of religious right and wrong means no uttering of a Merry Christmas greeting to Christians, or any other expression of acceptance toward a faith other than Islam.

In their opinion, the recognition of other faiths is a sin, because Islam is the only true religion, the researchers said.

Their responses were in keeping with the controversial edict issued last year by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) that banned Islamic interpretations based on liberalism, secularism and pluralism.

They also supported two other MUI fatwas -- one that requires Muslims to consider their religion to be the true one, and to view other faiths as wrong, and another that declares Ahmadiyah a heretical Islamic sect. Ahmadiyah recognizes another prophet apart from Muhammad.

The respondents said the involvement of women in politics or society in general must be limited, because their roles were merely domestic, with men as the leaders.

Not surprisingly, the idea of feminism and gender equality was branded part of liberal thought concepts which, according to them, were not in line with Islamic teachings.

In terms of implementing sharia law, the responses were split, with some advocating the establishment of an Islamic state, while others thought creating strong morality and education were more important.

Democracy which is based on representation, meanwhile, is preferred to direct elections, because "people cannot make their own choice".

Presented at a three-day workshop for members of the West Java Islamic boarding school community, the research quickly drew criticism from the assembled clerics and students.

"The Christmas greeting is trivial compared to the security and wealth received by a minority group. When Muslims are a minority, they are not protected," said a participant.

But the same might be said for religious minorities in this predominantly Muslim country, with the year 2005 marred by the forced closure of many houses of worships in Bandung and its surrounding areas.

Another participant argued that in Christian-majority provinces like East Nusa Tenggara, Muslims also face obstacles in establishing a mosque or making the call to prayer (adzan).

ICIP researcher Jajat Burhanudin said some Muslims remain "traumatized" by the legacy of Western colonization, but the intolerance was not limited to West Java.

"But will we continue to see Jews and Christians as threats? Or are we going to move on?" he said.

Jakarta Post Archive Link

Philippines Retirement

El Nido Sunset

Are you ready to take your Filipina honey back to her homeland to purchase a few acres of beachfront in El Nido and spend the rest of your miserable life watching sunsets while sucking down a few San Migs? Plenty of Americans, Aussies, and Europeans (especially Germans) do this every year, with some degrees of success and many, many stories of failure. I've met plenty of foreigners who have moved to the Philippines and purchased property with their Filipina spouses, and most of their lives have ended in dangerous wrecks.

Here's a somewhat informative article in today's International Herald Tribune and the issues, though most of the warnings have been avoided. Too sunny for my tastes, but it might fire up your guns for life in Southeast Asia's tropical paradise.

With 7,100 islands and year-round tropical sun, there is a lot of attractive property in the Philippines. It also is cheap, especially in comparison to Western prices. Throw in a low cost of living and a population that for the most part speaks excellent English, and the Philippines starts looking like a pretty attractive vacation home or retirement destination.

The problem is, the country's Constitution says you have to be a citizen to buy.

However, there are various means by which noncitizens can hold property in the Philippines.

The most common way is a corporate structure. Corporations can own land, so long as Filipino citizens own 60 percent of the company; the rest can be owned by a foreign partner or partners. The arrangement makes it particularly easy for foreigners to buy condominiums, as long as they don't compose more than 40 percent of a building's ownership.

As a result, Walters owns two of his properties in his own name. He has put the other two in his wife's name, a common practice but one that can cause problems in the event of a divorce.

Foreigners cannot claim citizenship in the Philippines without renouncing their original nationalities. Hardly any do.

But people of Filipino descent may be able to claim dual citizenship and, with it, the right to buy land. And even natural born Filipinos who have lost or given up their citizenship can own as much as 5,000 square meters, or about 54,000 square feet, in an urban development or three hectares, or 7.4 acres, in the countryside.

As a result, it is increasingly popular for overseas Filipinos to invest back home.

IHT Link

Name Game in the Philippines

Boracay

When it comes to creative names, I doubt their is any English-language country in the world that could compare with the Philippines. I personally have known a Peachy, a Bong Bong, and a Lolita -- and those were real names rather than nicknames, which is a whole other ball of wax. Funny story today from the BBC correspondent in Manila, about her struggle to find a unique name for her new baby.

Naming a child is often a difficult decision. For many Filipinos, individuality is an important factor, with many choosing unconventional first names. So when the BBC's Sarah Toms gave birth in the Philippines, could she come up with an original name?

Filipinos place serious importance on finding unique names for their children, most of them injected with a large dose of Philippine humour.

Here, there is nothing ironic about a senator called Joker Arroyo - it is his real name.

One composite name that has become popular is Luzviminda, taken from the three main regions of the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. One writer said it is like being called "Engscowani" for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Because of that I know a Peachy, a Preciosa and even a Bogi. I also know a Boy and a Girlie, names that often come from being the lone son or daughter in a large family.

One journalist friend told me of an interview he had with a Hitler Manila

I even have a female friend called Ken and no one thinks it is odd. Still, I was taken aback when a famous and middle-aged newspaper columnist asked me to call him Babe.

That brings me to the doorbell names: it is not uncommon to call your little one Bing, Bong, Bong Bong and even Ping and Ting.

Another category is the rock 'n' roll name. How would you feel being christened Led Zeppelin, Mick Jagger or Nirvana? One journalist friend told me of an interview he had with a Hitler Manila.

Another friend told me of a couple who named their five daughters Candy, Caramel, Cookie, Peanut and Popcorn. Scott Harrison, an American businessman here, says he has heard of a woman who gave birth to twin girls on either side of midnight, naming them Sunday and Monday. Nothing unusual in that - my daughter's kindergarten teacher is called Wednesday.

So what did I name my daughter?

BBC Link

Ghost of Valentine

Ghost of Valentine

What in the world could the upcoming Thai flick called Ghost of Valentine be about, you ask? A love story for the Valentine season that reunites lost lovers for the holidays? A romance about Casper the Ghost set in Ayuthaya.

Nah.

According to View from the Brooklyn Bridge, "the Phii Krasue is a very scary ghost in Thai mythology. It consists of a flying head with entrails hanging from it and a voracious hunger for blood and intestines. It uses its long flicking tongue to lick the dead carcass and sharp teeth to chew on it.

It has a similarity with a ghost type from Malaysia called the penanggalan ('head with dancing intestines'). This type of ghost has been depicted at least a couple of times previously in Asian films with Hong Kong's 'Witch with the Flying Head' (1977) and Indonesia's 'Mystics In Bali' (1981)."

Twitch Link

Covarrubias Art in Bali

Covarrubias Portrait

I've read several dozen books about Bali, but among my favorites is the classic Island of Bali by Miguel Covarrubias, a Mexican artist and writer who moved to the island back in the 1930s. Miguel and his wife stayed with Walter Spies in Ubud while they explored the island and create their artwork, which remains a classic of its genre. I'd recommend you first pick up their book for the excellent background writing about one of the world's most famous islands, but then perhaps pick up this new book which goes into greater detail about his illustrations.

Covarrubias also, later, produced a book on his native Mexico with the same quality of superb illustrations.

In 1930, a young artist from Mexico, by way of Manhattan, and his stunningly beautiful wife were set down by a Dutch packet steamer on the northern coast of Bali. Neither artist nor island would ever be the same. In two visits to Bali, amounting to just 20 months' residency, Miguel Covarrubias created an impressive body of drawings and paintings of the life of the island, and carried out the research for a dense 400-page book about its culture. Amazingly, Island of Bali, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1937, is still the indispensable work on the island's complex rituals and philosophy.

Despite the enduring renown of Covarrubias' book, the art he made in Bali has been neglected, rarely exhibited and mostly unpublished. Covarrubias in Bali, a gorgeous new book by Adriana Williams, the artist's biographer, and Yu-Chee Chong, now reveals the impressive mastery and range—and surprising quantity—of Covarrubias' work in Bali.

By the time he arrived on the island, several accomplished foreign artists had already been there, drawn by the romantic lure of a tropical paradise free of the stresses and neuroses of what was coming to be known as "modern civilization." While other artists, including the German painter Walter Spies and the Dutchman Rudolf Bonnet, were busily creating the myth of the Island of the Gods, concentrating on the exotic beauty of its bare-breasted maidens and graceful adolescent boys, Covarrubias delved deeper, following his anthropological research into the soul of Bali.

Time Asia Link

High Tech Police Work in Thailand

"The Beach" by Carl Parkes

A young English backpacker was raped and murdered last week on the resort island of Ko Samui, and the Thai police immediately went to work on the case. You might think that police technology in an emerging country such as Thailand would be backwards or primitive.

You would be wrong. The case was solved yesterday using cell phone tracing technology, DNA analysis, and Google Earth. The Thai cops know what they are doing, and big congrats to everyone involved in quickly solving this despicable murder.

When the body of Katherine Horton was found floating off Thong Krok beach on January 2 her death seemed likely to remain a mystery, until the police uncovered a hi-tech trail that eventually led to her alleged killers.

With no witnesses to describe what happened to the 21-year-old Welsh student on the night of January 1, her cell phone - which a British couple found on Lamai beach - provided the first lead. The last call from the phone was made at 21.30 on January 1.

Horton had been walking along Lamai Beach, a few hundred metres from her bungalow, talking to her mother Elizabeth.

When police traced the call, Horton’s mother told them she had been talking to her daughter for about 10 minutes when she heard her scream. After that the line went dead, the murdered girl’s mother told police. Before Horton was attacked, the British couple who later found her cell phone passed her while they were out for a stroll.

They told police they heard a scream and about 10 minutes later walked towards the direction the scream came from but found nothing except the cell phone. The couple left the phone with a waitress at Buddy Pub so that its owner could retrieve it.

Later, a mobile phone operator in Britain contacted Thai police with information on the length of Horton’s last call and the direction she was moving based on the network pole the call originated from and the one from which it was cut.

The spot where the phone signal ended would be where Horton was attacked. Her call lasted about 10 minutes and the signal showed she was moving westward. A police re-enactment based on this information led to the spot where her cell phone was found.

Police then used Google Earth to confirm the spot - which was not far from New Hut bungalow where Katherine was staying - by comparing it with the record of the phone signal.

On that night, there were two fishing boats moored off the beach. One of the two was the Chor Chortsittichai 25 whose crew had gathered to drink that night. One of the five crew members told police that after drinking and watching a pornographic video, two crewmembers - Bualoy Pothisith, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24 - swam ashore to visit prostitutes. After returning to their rusting trawler, however, they boasted that they had just raped a foreigner and described her as “very delicious”.

Police focused their investigation on the crew of the vessel after finding the crews of other fishing boats were less reluctant to give hair and saliva samples for DNA testing.

When all the evidence led to Bualoy and Wichai, police arrested them by posing as market vendors buying fish. The two suspects surrendered quietly after three shipmates told police they had bragged about the rape.

Police said the pair confessed they saw Horton talking on the phone on the beach and hit her with the pole of a beach umbrella that was nearby. They then dragged her behind a pile of rocks about 40 metres away and raped her, police said. When they were finished they hit her with the same umbrella pole and then dragged her about 20 metres into the sea and left her there, police said. The pair then returned to their fishing boat and went out to sea the next day, police said.

The DNA analysis of the semen recovered from Horton matched the blood samples taken from the two suspects, police said.

The Nation Link

Tropical Living Website from Bali

Kuta Beach 1979 by Carl Parkes

Nick, over at Bali Blog, has just posted an excerpt and link to a wonderful, new website coming from Bali, all about luxury villas and fine restaurants, but with some hilarious writing about life in paradise. Only two issues to date, but do check the publishers comments and the "satire" sections. And some great photography of expensive villas for sale down near Jimbaran, and upscale restaurants Seminyak and Ubud. The editor of this website can write like hell.

Your guide to the Bali Expat Community

Welcome to the latest issue of Tropical Living. As usual, you will find details of lots of amazingly beautiful properties, great articles, interviews, and art features. But since you (presumably) want to live here, or maybe you've already taken the plunge, here is your handy cutout- and-keep guide to the Bali expat community. So come on in, choose your social category, and get into the great Bali lifestyle.............

Desperate Housewives

Most week-day mornings, you will find a dozen or so Kijangs parked outside La Luciola with cowed drivers nervously waiting for their employers to finish their Eggs Benedicts, Frappucinos and perhaps just the one Mimosa. Enter the restaurant, and you will see enough coiffed peroxide to bleach the Congo, Jimmy Choo's for an entire discount store and a cloud of smoke emitting from a hundred Marlboro Lights. Sit as inconspicuously a you dare close by, and hear Fulham accents and Melbourne twangs discussing their husband's many shortcomings (and short comings), the drunkenness and loutish behaviour of said husband's bosses, the unreliability of the domestic staff and of course the utter bitchiness, dire financial straits, sagging bosoms and general disgracefulness of whomever among them couldn't make breakfast on that particular day.

The Desperate Housewives are busy, busy, busy. School run in the morning, a quick three-hour breakfast with the girls, manicure, pedicure, massage, yoga lessons, tennis lessons, pick up little Tarquin, drop him off with the maids, shopping, fittings, more shopping, afternoon drinks, dinner with the Johnson's and the next day it starts all over again. Simply exhausting, darling! If you are lucky enough to be ordained into this most exclusive of Bali clubs, you'd better make sure your hubby is prepared to increase the limit on your Amex card.

The TTB (Trinket Trade Brigade)

Bali wasn't started by you and me; it was started by a near-mythical Italian furniture exporter by the name of Giancarlo. Giancarlo and his friends arrived here in the 70's, and they ain't going nowhere, mainly because they can't afford to. Giancarlo and his friends, whom are collectively known as the TTB, are all extremely tanned, very thin, covered in interesting tattoos and still dress like the Mamas and the Papas circa 1967. They survive ( just) by sending one container a year of dubious furniture, custom jewelry or batik to a cousin's shop in Milan or Lyon.

They congregate at Bali Deli, where they will buy one small bag of organic lettuce for fifteen dollars, 22 grams of Parma ham and nothing else, and at KuDeTa, where they nurse their cocktails for extraordinary lengths of time. Legend has it that one prominent T TB member, Jean-Pierre Grandnose, managed to convincingly sip a Long Island Ice Tea for seven hours last August.

The Committee Members

There are many organizations in Bali, with various nominal activities and purposes apart from having lunch and taking down memoranda and giving each other certificates, pins and rather camp-looking fake gold chains, but almost all of them have the same sort of members, namely the sort of fellow who would back home volunteer to be a Returning Officer at a general election and have his own engraved pewter behind the bar at his local pub.

The Committee Members and their brethren have joined in order to "put something back to the community" but instead of actually sending a cheque to Oxfam they spend most of their time bickering about who should be on the sub-committee for Membership Rule Compliance and who should be in charge of the tombola at the next Christmas party. In all fairness, some of them actually do an awful lot of good things, but why they feel it necessary to eat rubber chicken in a hotel conference room on alternate Wednesdays and start meetings with the words "Hear ye, hear ye" beats me. They are very fond of the Arena Sports Cafe, Mama's in Kuta and Gracy Kelly's Irish Pub.

The Undesirables

Timeshare salesmen, ageing former strippers, unemployed building contractors who once was the fifth assistant sewage consultant when the Four Seasons was built twenty years ago and haven't worked since, druggies, drunks, left-behinds, 60-year old Australian "property developers" driving mopeds to their rented bedsits on Poppy's Lane, ex-cons with dodgy passports who cannot leave but can't afford to stay, slightly ill Dutch retirees, and so forth, are all in plentiful supply.

Tropical Living Link

Bangkok Dazed Blog by Don Gilliland

Thailand Elite Card Failure

Don is one of the co-owners of Dasa Books on Sukumvit Road in Bangkok, and with over a decade of experiences in Southeast Asia, he's always got some pithy comments on his blog, which is sponsored by Things Asia. Today, he goes after one my pet peeves: the hopelessly confused and almost completely useless Tourism Authority of Thailand. The Thai government could save itself a great deal of money, and avoid worldwide embarrassment by just closing down the TAT and sending everybody home.

Tourism is one of Thailand's biggest revenue sources. Thus, getting more tourists to visit the country would seem to be a top priority for the government. But the folks in charge of this matter, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), don't quite seem to have a grip on how to go about performing this task. Take a look at the baffling TAT website and you'll get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

For example, Thailand's Dong Phayayan Khao-Yai Forest was chosen by UNESCO as a World Heritage site this past summer. That is quite an honor, yet TAT has never bothered to acknowledge the prestigious listing on their website. Instead, their home page is still running a bunch of boring blurbs, including one telling us that there was "no damage to resorts" after an earthquake in the Nicobar Islands. That happened back in August.

One of websites that TAT operates (thus far I've counted three), thailandgrandfestival.com, looks like it hasn't been updated in a while. Click on their Travel Guide link and what do you see? Listings of all the monthly events - for 2004. That's right; it's not just one year past its expiration date, but two years gone! I thought maybe there was some glitch with my browser, so I refreshed the page and tried other links to view the page, but each time all I got were the 2004 events. At least the page header says 2006!

On TAT's tourismthailand.org site, if you are seeking information about Thailand's many colorful festivals you have to wander through a maze of options and then click on something called Happiness Thailand to see what is scheduled. Or can you? Next, you have to navigate past a further blitz of links until you arrive at this confusing menu:

Travelling Happiness
Happiness Has Many Choices
Happiness is a Peaceful Night

Under the second option, you are then bombarded with an avalanche of ridiculous links:

Faraway Happiness, Natural Happiness, Festive Happiness, Active Happiness, Marine Happiness, the Flavors of Happiness, Romantic Happiness, Happiness Extended, Blissful Happiness, Happiness Bargains, and finally - thankfully - Healthy Happiness.

Even if you chose the seemingly simpler Destinations link, you must decide between various geographical options such as Central Thailand, North Eastern Thailand, etc. I would venture to say that most tourists looking for a certain destination - say, Ko Samui, Krabi, or Chiangmai - will probably not know which region to check. Wouldn't it be better to simply list the cities instead? Actually TAT does so, but that list is over on a separate Destination Guide.

Which leads one to wonder: Are the Happiness Thailand destinations different from the Destinations listed on the other page? I was curious so I clicked on Central Thailand and was confronted with: Discovering Happiness, Gracious Happiness, Choices of Happiness, and Majestic Happiness. At that point I didn't have the stomach to navigate any more happiness and switched over to check basketball scores on ESPN.

But wait, there's more! Over on tatgovernor.com, another linked site courtesy of - you guessed it - the TAT governor, you can rummage through even more baffling links to find the event listings, all of which are miraculously ones for the current calendar year. By this time, however, most Internet surfers might be re-thinking their travels plans and decide that a vacation in Costa Rica would be a much simpler proposition than finding happiness in Thailand.

Bangkok Dazed Link

Google Free Aps for your XP

Google Eyes

I don't generally blog much about computer applications, but here's a great site from Google where you can pick up some free essentials. I'd avoid the Desktop Search, which has come under fire from many sources, and the Google Taskbar is rather unnecessary and consumes some of your precious window space, but the others are worthwhile. And free.

Google Free Software

King Story

The King Never Smiles

Oh boy. This book will never be openly sold in Thailand, though you can make your advance order from Yale University Press and perhaps receive copy in a few months. And I always thought the king was a benign monarch without much of a hidden agenda. But then I might be wrong.

Oh boy. I doubt Paul Handley will ever be admitted into Thailand after the authorities hear about this book. It's even more scandalous than other books recently banned in Thailand.

The first independent biography of Thailand’s monarch, whose image as a benign Buddhist god-king masks one of the world’s most politically powerful thrones.

Thailand’s Bhumibol Adulyadej, the only king ever born in the United States, came to the throne of his country in 1946 and is now the world’s longest-serving monarch. This book tells the unexpected story of his life and 60-year rule—how a Western-raised boy came to be seen by his people as a living Buddha, and how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political, autocratic, and even brutal.

Paul Handley provides an extensively researched, factual account of the king’s youth and personal development, ascent to the throne, skillful political maneuverings, and attempt to shape Thailand as a Buddhist kingdom. Blasting apart the widely accepted image of the king as egalitarian and virtuous, Handley convincingly portrays an anti-democratic monarch who, together with allies in big business and the murderous, corrupt Thai military, has protected a centuries-old, barely modified feudal dynasty.

Yale University Press Link

Bigfoot Spotted in Malaysia

Malaysian Bigfoot

After several decades of harassment in Washington, BigFoot has apparently fled the woody wilds of the U.S. for the safer confines of the jungles of Malaysia, having been spotted several times by the original orang asli just north of the metropolis of Johor Baru. Blurry video images of the hairy creature sure to follow.

Could Bigfoot, believed to have been spotted in the jungles of Johor,
actually be a pre-historic animal which had gone extinct over hundreds of thousand years ago?

Based on the Bigfoot-Giganto theory, researchers claimed that Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, Yeti or Mawas was probably a pre-historic giant ape which lived during the Middle of Pleistocene age.

The animal is believed to be living in several parts of Asia including China and South-East Asia, as well as North America during ancient times before facing extinction from the earth some 200,000 to 500,000 years ago.

The question of whether Bigfoot was a pre-historic animal had long been discussed by researchers around the world but until now, they have failed to reach any defi nite answer to it.

This raised questions whether the Bigfoot sightings by several individuals, including Orang Asli villagers at the 248 million-year-old Endau-Rompin National Park, may be the remnants of the Gigantopithecus Blacki (‘Giant Ape’ in Latin) species.

At the same time, there were similar physical traits between Gigantopithecus and Bigfoot, which according to the Orang Asli folk, the giant animal, which was said to be 10 feet tall, with brown hairy body, was sighted in several jungle spots in Johor.

According to the US-based Bigfoot Field Research Organisation (BFRO), researchers on the animal generally accepted the Bigfoot-Giganto theory.

The BFRO which claims itself as the most credible Bigfoot research organisation on its website, said the issue of Gigantopithecus had caught the interest of many anthropologists and primatologists.

Johor National Park Corporation (JNPC) director Hashim Yusof, when asked on the link between Bigfoot and Gigantopithecus, said that the possibility is there, given the park’s huge area and age.

“The Endau-Rompin National Park covers 48,906 hectares and is 248 million years old. We only have information on half of the fl ora and fauna there,” he said.

Recently JNPC organised a one-day expedition at Endau-Rompin to trek Bigfoot but failed to fi nd any traces such as its footprints.

Hashim said his party would organise another expedition to track down Bigfoot at the Endau-Rompin National Park probably next month, where they will stay for a week inside the jungle. – Bernama

Malay Mail Link

Shark Slaughter Continues

Shark Captured at Martha's Vineyard

Another sad and disturbing story about the slaughter of sharks for shark's fin soup has just been published, with some unique insight on where in the world this debacle is taking place: offshore in the cold Pacific waters of south and central America. Despite the efforts of WildAid in Berkeley, and promotional efforts by Jackie Chan and Ang Lee, the Chinese of China, Taiwan, and Singapore continue to keep this dastardly practice alive.

Why don't these countries ban shark's fin soup and show some sensitivity to the endangered species?

"That is what is really important, the fins," said Luis Salto, 57, as he sliced up sharks. "They sell in China."

Indeed, the fins collected here are exported in a quasi-legal network to Hong Kong, Beijing, Taiwan, Singapore and other corners of Asian affluence. There, a heaping bowl of shark fin soup, touted as offering medicinal or aphrodisiac qualities, is dished up for as much as $200.

This taste for fins, marine biologists say, is depleting the world's oceans of one of its most ancient creatures, threatening ecosystems already buffeted by overfishing. Some sharks, like the hammerhead and the great white, have been reduced by upward of 70 percent in the past 15 years, while others, like the silky white tip, have disappeared from the Caribbean.

"If you go to any reef around the world, except for those that are really protected, the sharks are gone," said Ransom Myers, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. "Their value is so great that completely harmless sharks, like whale sharks, are killed, for their fins."

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization conservatively estimates that 856,000 tons of shark and their cousins, rays and skates, were caught in 2003. That is triple the quantity 50 years before, as shark fin soup has caught on as a status symbol in Asia.

Fins sell for as much as $700 per kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, in Asia, making big sharks worth thousands of dollars. In the dried seafood stores in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong island on a recent day, shark fin stores had no shortage of buyers.

"Serving shark fins in banquets is a tradition for Chinese people," said Chiu Ching-cheung, chairman of the Shark Fin Trade Merchants Association in Hong Kong. "Without shark fin, a Chinese banquet does not look like one at all."

International Herald Tribune Link

David Byrne in the Philippines

Marcos LBJ and Imelda

Who would have imagined? David Byrne of Talking Heads fame recently made a two-week visit to the Philippines, to conduct research for an upcoming musical about the life and times of Imelda Marcos.

Packing for a quick trip to the Philippines. I leave in 1⁄2 an hour. The “Here Lies Love” Imelda musical project has had some setbacks, but it’s still alive, and having never been to the Philippines I’d better take this opportunity to get acquainted with my subject. Through friends of friends I have arranged to meet some journalists and actors over there, some of whom have archival video and stills from the Marcos era. I’ll also make side trips to the north — Ilocos — where Ferdinand was from, and to Leyte, where Imelda was from. There are shrines and things that will illuminate their mythology in those small towns.

Byrne has posted a surprisingly long report on his visit to Manila, Ilocos Norte, and Tacloban, where Imelda is remembered in a religious monument dedicated to Santo Nino. Some of his tales are hard to believe (he rode a bicycle from the Manila Hotel to Makati? I think not.) and his historical dates are sometimes a bit off, but how often do you read travelogue and history about the Philippines from the lead singer and composer of the Talking Heads?

I suppose besides gathering some more research and archival material (hours spent watching archival materials and looking through old books at the Cultural Center are missing from this journal.) I hope also to catch and absorb some whiff of the Philippine ethos, sensibility and awareness — by osmosis — and by conversation, too. I believe that politics is an expression of the landscape — the streets, eroticism and hum-drum lives — as much it is of backrooms, ideologies and legislature. Geography, religion, sex, weather, music, food — these all contribute to a national policy and how it functions.

David Byrne Visits the Philippines

Tripoli Report

Nigerian Circus Ape

I've read a few early reports from Americans on their organized tours to Tripoli and beyond, but none of it really rang true. Just accolades about spectacular desert scenery and visits to deserted Roman cities. Not much truth in any of those Slate stories, but fortunately the Los Angeles Weekly has posted a jarring account of the situation in the land of Khaddafi.

Most apartment buildings were more or less equally dreary, but one did stand out. Architecturally it was just another modernist horror. But a 6-by-8-foot portrait of Qaddafi was bolted to the facade three stories up. It partially blocked the view from two of the balconies. The bastard couldn't even leave people alone when they were home.

The posters weren't funny anymore. There were too damn many of them, for one thing. And, besides, Qaddafi is ugly. He may earn a few charisma points for traveling to Brussels and pitching his Bedouin tent on the Parliament lawn, but he's no Che Guevara in the guapo department.

I felt ashamed that I first found his portraits even slightly amusing. The novelty wore off in less than a day, and he's been in power longer than I've been alive.

He was an abstraction when I first got there. But after walking around his outdoor laboratory and everywhere seeing his beady eyes and that arrogant jut of his mouth, it suddenly hit me. He isn't merely Libya's tyrant. He is a man who would be god.

His Mukhabarat, the secret police, are omniscient. His visage is omnipresent. His power is omnipotent.

And he is deranged. He says he's the sun of Africa. He threatens to ban money and schools. He vanquished beauty and art. He liquidates those who oppose him. He says he can't help it if the people of Libya love him so much they plaster his portrait up everywhere. Fuck him. I wanted to rip his face from the walls.

LA Weekly Link

Thai Day Year 2005 Summary

Mekong Giant Catfish Dinner

Thai Day is the English language supplement for the International Herald Tribune, and in many ways is fast becoming an attractive alternative to the dry and unimaginative websites of the Bangkok Post and the Nation. Sondhi seems to have picked up some very good writers who cover both the news and social issues with a great deal of humor. Such as the following summary of last year's highlights.

Giant fish vanquished

This year villagers in Chiang Khong landed the largest freshwater fish on record. They had reportedly planned to sell their rare catch to environmental groups, but the great beast died on them. Instead, the fishermen got their picture taken with the 293-kilogram monster to prove their fish story to all mankind. Then they ate it. Surely the Chiang Mai Night Safari, would’ve paid a pretty penny to have the critically endangered Mekong Giant Catfish on its menu. Too late now.

Little alien seen

In September some Mae Chan villagers reported seeing a short, doll-like extraterrestrial floating above their rice fields in the early morning hours. The report caused a stir and drew hundreds of people to the scene. Some days later Manager Online quoted a man in a neighboring village saying the “creature” was probably an inflatable rubber doll he had employed as a scarecrow that blew away in a recent storm. But perhaps the “villager” is in the pay of the Thaksin/CIA/intergalactic mafia conspiracy and other dark forces...the truth is out there.

IHT Thai Daily Manager Link

Americans to Build Singapore Casinos

Singapore Bugis Street

Singapore plans to build two casinos; one near the largely vacant and failed Marina Bay landfill, and another out at family oriented Sentosa Island. Major gambling firms worldwide were invited to bid on the projects, and initially almost a dozen firms joined the competition. But the Singapore government kept changing the rules and the latest requirement for 1 Billion for lease rights just blew the project out of the water. It just didn't make economic sense, and very quickly many of the major casino players have bailed from the projects and said "no thanks."

Today, the final remaining Australian casino operator has thrown in the towel, and only three American Las Vegas casinos remain in contention. Genting Highlands is still in the running, but do you really expect Singapore to approve a Malaysian company to run their national casinos? Fat chance.

Packer pulls $6bn casino bid
John Lehmann
January 04, 2006

PUBLISHING and Broadcasting executive chairman James Packer has withdrawn the company's bid to build a Singapore casino development that could have cost $6 billion - his first major business decision since the death of his father Kerry last week.

The late media magnate's son yesterday said that expected returns from the landmark casino resort were "insufficient" to justify higher costs now associated with the project.

The Singapore Government surprised bid teams last month by imposing a stiff $S1.2 billion ($985 million) price tag on the 60-year lease required to operate the 20ha waterfront site at Marina Bay.

The decision to withdraw PBL's chips from Singapore's table comes after rival Australian gaming giant Tabcorp Holdings pulled out last month because of the expected blowout in costs.

Las Vegas gambling giant Wynn Resorts has also turned its back on Singapore.

PBL's move was welcomed by analysts and its shares closed eight cents up at $16.56, almost recovering the ground lost following Kerry Packer's death on Boxing Day. "It's not unexpected in view of the rising costs and declining returns," Shaw Stockbroking senior industrial analyst Greg Fraser said.

The Australian Link

Fido and a Fine Chianti

Jewish Dog

Gloria, Gloria, Gloria. Have you lost your mind? It's bad enough that you are against the use of contraceptives in the Philippines, but now you support the consumption of dog? I'm heard of political faux pax, but this one really wins the prize for year 2006 to date. I doubt if even Shinawatra will be able to top this whopper.

I didn't publish that recent photograph of you surfing in La Union, but I just might change my mind.

Arroyo defends eating of dog meat
By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
Manila

President Gloria Arroyo has defended the eating of dog meat, the use of which has been perfected by gourmets in northern Luzon and in her hometown in central Luzon.

"Dog meat keeps you warm, does it not?" Arroyo told Mayor Braulio Yaranon of Baguio City, during a dinner which she hosted for local government officials.

Arroyo and her family stayed in Baguio during the holiday season.

In a transcript sent to Manila's presidential palace, Arroyo also said her knowledge of exotic cuisine using dog meat was rudimentary.

Arroyo's hometown in Pampanga is known for its fine culinary tradition and exotic dishes which make use of frogs, mole crickets, snakes, field rats and monitor lizards.

Arroyo said when in Pampanga, she indulges in local exotic cuisine.

Gulf News Link

Asian Sex Gazette Picks Top 20 Asian Babes for 2005

Lucy Liu

Asian Sex Gazette may sound like yet another sleazy and ad-driven website well worth skipping, but it's actually a rather serious and only slightly exploitive look into the world of sex in Asia. They cover the sex scene, but don't include any hardcore porn, and often get into controversial and political issues such as the recent arrest of Gary Glitter in Cambodia.

And then there's this fine list of the top 20 Asian babes for 2005, including some fine, fine photos "borrowed" from magazines such as Playboy and FHM. It's an easy way to build up your Asian babes pictorial folio, and discover some new names on the scene.

And who would have imagined that straight-laced Lucy Liu was putting out such erotic photos? Nice work, Lucy, and I still love that slightly cross-eyed look of yours.

It has been a good year at Asian Sex Gazette and we have enjoyed working to bring you quality reporting on matters of sexuality from Asia. At times the news has been good, such as women gaining rights, sexual education improving in places where it was lacking or non-existent, or the work of many to improve sexual health.

Over the year we have become recognized as a premier source for reporting on sex in Asia, and we thank you the reader for your support. Our publication has found that, for some reason, our reports on up-and-coming, sex-scandal celebrities and model profiles of beautiful Asian woman are a bit more popular than our reporting on say, human trafficking. Always seeking to serve our readership, we bring you 'Asian Sex Gazette's Top 20 Asian woman of 2005.'

These are women who made headlines in 2005, advanced the status of Asian femininity in the West and made all of us take a second glance. We believe this also provides a public service by helping our friends and professional cohorts at publications like AskMen.com, who were only able to identify a handful of Asian women for their 'Top 99' this year, by helping to increase the profile of Asian women.

Asian Sex Gazette Link

Bali Restaurant Reviews

Christmas in Jakarta

Several years ago, I was hired by Worldview Systems here in San Francisco to write a short 20-page profile of Bali for their internet site. They actually scored a ticket to Bali from the old Garuda office at Union Square and I flew off to the island for a few weeks, also to hire a local contact by the name of Sarah who was the chief editor of Bali Now, or Bali Today. I think she's still living in Legian with her kids.

I did the usual rounds and came back with some hilarious reviews of restaurants, cafes, and nightclubs in Kuta/Legian/Seminyak with some short shots at the relatively lame scene in Ubud aside from a few Balinese friends who have run cafes in that town for several decades.

Bali Discovery today provides a link to a site that keeps up on the restaurant scene in Bali.

The 1970's must have been grim. Local warungs [cafes] that even made some minimal attempt of producing food that looked, or tasted, a little bit western when on the plate, became overnight sensations. Featured in many well-known, international, guide books, these establishments are today still, unfortunately, serving up the same poor imitations. Having been highlighted, on the world stage, by famous guide books [some with questionable taste], and having made much money as a result, who can really blame them?

Most of the early foreign restaurateurs did not help either, and served up some really bad examples of their supposed national cuisine, as most of them were not professionals of the hospitality trade. Some of these have since gone to the wall, as they deserved, but a few of them still exist today. Outside of the new five star hotels [some of which are also not known for their culinary delights], there was little else of quality.

But the revolution had to come!

It started in the late 1980's, and has been gathering steam ever since! It started quietly; a couple of good Cantonese restaurants, the two young Australians that built a beach house north of Seminyak at the Petitenget Temple, the French boys who looked after the catering at the wonderful Bali Bird Park then moved into their own restaurant.

In Bali today, you can eat extremely well, and choose from many different national cuisines. Furthermore, the cost is a fraction of what you would pay, for the same quality of food, in any of the world's major cities. When you add to this, for no extra charge, some of the most magnificent dining settings that you could ever imagine, then you know that you really are holidaying in the `land of the gods'.

One of the initial things a first-time visitor notices in Bali, is the almost total absence of Balinese restaurants. Most of the local eating-houses are either Chinese, Indonesian Chinese, Indonesian or the Halal [Muslim] Padang food of Sumatra. The Balinese must be one of the few world cultures for whom eating is not a social habit. At their many ceremonies everybody eats, more or less, together. And it is for such ceremonies that all of the great Balinese dishes are prepared. For any special ceremony, Babi Guling [Suckling Pig], and Sate Lilith are almost essential!

It is very rare for a family to eat a meal together, as is done in almost every other culture. Everybody eats, by themself, whenever hungry. This is often no more than a handful of cold, already cooked, rice. If a couple of people get hungry at the same time, then of course they may all go off to a local warung to eat. Only, however, because they all wanted to eat, and not for any social significance.

Now in Bali, we even have a fine dining Balinese restaurant. It is called Bumbu Bali, and has been very faithfully set up by the Hyatt's ex-chef, Heinz van Holzen. Others are quickly following, like the great little warung, Red Rice, up above Ubud at Sayan.

You can now enjoy better than average meals of many different cuisines. Chefs have come from all over the world. Some have married and stayed, whilst others have just passed on their skills to locals.

Bali Eats 2005 Restaurant Review

The Nation Letters

Bangkok Post Letter Poster

Here in San Francisco, I can only access the Bangkok Post and The Nation via their websites, which is a mixed bag as I can't really find the hidden stories that don't make the internet. Rely on 2Bangkok.com for those blips. But I always enjoy the Letters to the Editor section, where irate and slightly crazed farangs vent their love and frustrations with the kingdom, and often provide honest insights into life in the land of smiles, or frowns, or whatever. Two good letters today on totally different subjects.

Yes, Thais are arrested in UK, it’s just not ‘big news’

Re: “Toughen immigration laws to keep out undesirables”, Letters, January 1.

It is certainly bad for Thailand to have foreign drug dealers here, that’s for sure. But the way that Thai culture is has a large part to do with the way the news is reported here.

Whenever a farang paedophile or other farang criminal is arrested here, it is front-page news. The policy of blaming everything on foreigners is an Asian disease.

But if a Thai is arrested in Britain, it is not front-page news. When was the last time a story about Thai paedophiles or other Thai criminals was plastered on the front page of The Nation. Rarely, if ever. It is always blame the farangs, as if Thais never commit the same crimes.

All the major drug dealers in Thailand are Thai. Only Asia is known for not airing its dirty laundry. That’s why you don’t see such stories.

When was the last time you saw a Thai movie that dealt with local police or government corruption or crime? Never. And the way farangs are always used as scapegoats in Thai television series and Thai movies would be considered too racist to be portrayed that way in any Western country.

I like Thailand, obey all the laws and enjoy living here, but I also realise this aspect of Thai culture will never change. Denying the problem or looking for a way to blame it on foreigners is the Asian style.

Stealing American films and selling bootleg DVDs is okay, but if a popular Thai movie comes out, local authorities won’t allow them to be pirated. Look at what happened when “Tom Yum Kung” came out. The Thai police arrested some tourists for filming inside a theatre. And they destroyed the bootleg DVDs that were on the street.

Letter-writer A Singh should at least face the reality of how things work in Thailand. But I say kick out all the farangs who are here and cannot sustain themselves financially. Check out Sukhumvit Soi 3, where half the foreign “visitors” don’t even have passports. Who did they pay off?

Concerned Observer

Bangkok

-------------------

Men come to Thailand seeking their own liberation

Re: “Classic distinctions between the sexes are acceptable”, Letters, December 30.

Yasothon’s John Arnone says, “This country is awash with men who fled their own countries in order to try to find some equal footing with the opposite sex.”

I am not certain where he derives this information from or even why he expounds such a preposterous idea.

There is a certain antithesis to Arnone’s complaint: if Western men are inferior in their own countries, then they are here seeking women who are equally inferior. Or have I misunderstood him? Apparently, the shift to equality is upsetting the male ego.

I am one of those who didn’t flee so much the women in the United States as I did a gradual diminution of values that has really now made itself known - even here in the Land of Smiles.

Let’s not be so negative about Western women; for sure, they may not be so accommodating, but why do they have to be, anyhow?

I don’t agree that, for example, in divorces women should get everything, but they are so often given everything by the men in the beginning - housecleaning, washing, most chores to do with raising the children, very little recreation, etc - while their husbands tend to enjoy perks associated with being the main breadwinner, perks like going to bars and clubs, hanging out with the guys while the family is at home on its own and so on.

I guess that equality here in Thailand means then that you can carry on just as you want to in the West - but can’t.

Brian Knight

Nakhon Ratchasima

Cambodia Blog

Cambodia Train by Elizabeth Briel

Long weekend with my buddy Mark, who was my roommate my final year at UC Santa Barbara, and is now living in my house here in Pac Heights. Long story, but it's great having the screaming maniac in this big old lonely house. Hence the lack of posts, but I'm slowing gearing up for some more new stuff for the new year. Gad, hope 2006 is better than the last year which was a total train wreck.

A young American lady now living in Siem Reap seems to have put me on her email list, with a colorful description of a recent train ride from Phnom Penh to Battambang. I've been to the train station in PP and thought it was abandoned, but apparent a train leaves about once weekly. She took it. Fine photos included.

Elizabeth Briel Rides the Train