Madame Chiang on the Philippines

Manila Binondo Building Collapse

Things I won't miss...

This is the first of a two part post...the second - not surprisingly, and more postively - will be on things that I will miss...this, as titled, is things that I will not miss....

Taxis
I won't miss the smelly, dirty, about to fall apart taxis that I have been using on a daily basis since I arrived here.... I have clocked up four accidents in a taxi and one disintegration (under the Shaw-Edsa flyover - the back wing fell off a taxi whilst we were sitting in the middle of the junction waiting for the traffic to clear - the driver got out...asked me to move into the front seat, whilst he man-handled the back wing into the back seat!!). Or the taxi that mid-ride to Makati said he needed to do something urgent stopped the car, got out, flipped up the bonnet and started fiddling around with the engine.

Taxi drivers (there is a flip side to this one - see the positive post later!)
I wont miss the conniving, scamming drivers...the ones that ask for extra money due to traffic, weather, time of day/night, general political situation etc etc....
I wont miss the drivers that it is a battle to get them to use their meters
I wont miss the drivers who run out of petrol mid-ride (happened twice), or on one occasion, the driver who mid-ride asked if I could advance the fare so he could fill up with petrol... actually this made me quite sad - it just goes to show the hand-mouth lifestyle that the lower classes here have...nobody should have to deal with that...worker or customer.
And I sure as hell wont miss being turfed out of taxis because either the driver has changed his mind, or I refuse to pay any extra over and above the meter.... I've been turfed out on Edsa three times (usually late at night - not fun) and once in Cebu, fortunately in the middle of Lapu-Lapu city where there was a friendly policeman!

The Airport
I don't know where to start....!!!!! It's a disaster....organisation, cleanliness, security, its all bad....Manila International Airport does not have one redeeming feature that I can think of.....from the wildlife, to the terrible shopping and f&b facilities, lack of a decent bookstore, the process for getting to check in....its all bad....and arrival at the airport is even worse!

Waste of resources
The Philippines has a lot going for it...language, education level, fantastic tourist sites and locations, vivid history, diving, lovely resorts, a generally friendly and welcoming population, great shopping, relatively good weather..... so why is it not a booming, flourishing nation with a bright and rosy future.... the political situation and the government are mostly to blame but...and I tell my Filipino friends this....the problem is 'resignation'...the other day whilst catching up on blog reading...a post by Torn & Frayed, had one sentence in it that whilst in this case was referring to political killings, I think refers to the Philippines in general....

He is battling against the biggest ally of all politically motivated killings—the resignation of the Filipino people.

he goes on....

An almost unlimited well of stoicism it this country’s greatest strength and its most overpowering weakness. It sees balikbayans through the most terrible experiences from Jeddah to Singapore to LA and almost all points in between and somehow gives them the strength to come out of it all laughing. It enables Filipinos at home to smile despite low wages, poor living conditions, and some of the world’s worst traffic. It is an absolutely necessary quality in the often brutal world of modern Manila.

Yet stoicism has its limits. Putting up with crap is all well and good, but there comes a point when you have to change the world instead of just putting up with it

....I copied pasted, because i couldn't have written it better myself. Never have I come across such a waste of resources, such complete and utter chaos and such resignation..... it's tragic.

The Peeing
I don't understand why Filipino men have this urge to unzip their trousers and pee where ever they wish..... it is disgusting and its unhygienic.... Whilst in BKK I actively looked to see if this was an Asian thing (although have not seen it in HKG or Singapore!) but in three days...not one guy standing close to a wall, lamp post, tree etc relieving himself.... here I see on average three or four a day when out and about.... its not nice.

The staring
It's not polite and given the number of foreigners that have been in the country, one would think we were not a rarity...granted if I go way out into the provinces...being blonde and rather - how can I put this -'busty'??!!, I can understand that I'll get a few looks...but in the Metro Manila area there is no excuse for the out and out staring that goes on...whilst waiting for a cab, walking down the road, in a mall, wherever...again, its not nice....

The overall feeling of chaos, disorganistion and dirt
Self explanatory....I loathe it!

The supermarkets
Quality, items available, supply and again, organisation - all lacking....although I would say that the new Rustans at Rockwell is an improvement...a few more like that would make life more pleasant.... they even have conveyor belts at the checkout counters (I'm a simple soul really), and it's clean, bright and doesn't smell....!!! OK, I know I'm being fussy - when we lived in The Gambia in the mid-80s we only had butter for four months of the year.... a real treat was a mini tin of condensed milk, meat was purchased in the market - usually half a cow and we would take it home and butcher it... so yes, this is an improvement....but on the other hand, we are now in 2007, 20 years on, in a huge city with a large expat population...

The overall lack of trust
There is an overriding lack of trust in this country that is shown in the way that purchases are handled in a store (packed and checked off against the receipt, not being able to leave without the receipt visible), the way that credit card purchases are handled, the way that people are frisked going into and out of establishments, even moving out of my apartment needs security checks etc (and its my belongings that are being checked...as if I have broken into another apartment and stolen their items). I realise that this lack of trust is due to previous abuses of trust, due to the levels of poverty in the country....but still it is quite disheartening that this is the case.

I think that's basically it....no doubt I shall think of other annoyances but, off the top of my head, these are the ones that have bothered me the most whilst I have been here!

When I told my friends and colleagues two years ago that I was moving to Manila...to a man (and a woman), they could not believe that I would do something that daft...nobody, including those that had worked here had a positive word to say about the country.

Madame Chiang Link

Newley Purnell visits Loei "Ghost Festival"

I've attended dozens of festivals in Thailand but have never made it up north of Loei where the very unusual "Ghost Festival" takes place, which seems to have absolutely nothing to do with Thailand or Buddhism but looks like a good time. Newley did the trip from Bangkok and provides some colorful photos.

Last weekend we ventured up to Loei Province, in the far north of Thailand, to witness the annual Ghost Festival (or Pee Ta Khon). Below are some pics. And here’s the full photo set.

In short, Pee Ta Khon involves the local people marching through the streets of a small town wearing ghost and monster consumes. The genesis of the festival seems to be somewhat unclear. You can read more about it here and here.

The music was pulsating; the beer and whiskey flowed in abundance; the heat was oppressive; and the participants were good-natured and enthusiastic. All in all, it was extremely entertaining.

Newley Purnell Link

Media Control in Thailand

Banned in Thailand

This is not 1984, but the Thought Police continue to grind their teeth and tighten their grip with manic paranoia. Buoyed by the heaving waves of new conservatism, the Big Sisters at our Ministry of unCulture are pushing a new Film Act that promises a weird rating system that will zap us back to the Dark Ages, if not into a black hole.

Now in the pipeline to be tabled before Cabinet and subsequently to the National Legislative Assembly, the draft of the new film law, written by the Council of State under the guidance of the hawks at the unCulture Ministry, proposes a system unseen before in the history of film rating (bar Communist states). As written, there will be the G rating, given to a movie suitable for all age groups; the over-15 rating, the over-18, and here's the kick: the ''Banned'' rating. Hidden like a dagger in a cloak is another clause that gives legal right to the film committees, which will be made up mainly of bureaucrats, to axe ''inappropriate scenes''.

They just adore their scissors, these self-appointed dogs _ I mean watchdogs _ and with the tenacity of a rottweiler biting into the arm of a suspect murderer, they'll do everything to cling on to their power to cut, hack, bite, butcher, amputate, mutilate and maim. In short, there will be both the rating and the cut. This proposed legislation is not in the least an improvement to the antiquated, pre-constitutional monarchy 1930 Film Act that is still being enforced today. Seventy-seven years of trying to catch up with reality, and still we fail miserably. It's not just disappointing, it's utterly sad.

In a sensible world, to apply the film rating and age classification means to do away with the cuts and the ban. The system works like a swimming pool with different depth levels; kids can go in at the shallow end and not the other, but there must be a deeper end into which adults can take a plunge. Only halfwits would build a swimming pool with only the shallow side and ban anything deeper, absurdly claiming that it is ''dangerous'' and ''inappropriate''. The people who've written the new film law clearly want us all to keep swimming in the kid's pool, splashing about in waist-deep water like dying beached whales, and thus dwarfing our ability to grow and seek challenges down the deeper slope.

True, it is naive to believe that the rating system is faultless, but in many countries it has proved an adequately foolproof means for the state to allow artistic freedom while retaining certain measures of control.

To advocate the No-Cut!-No-Ban! stance may sound extreme to concerned parties _ what if they start making kiddie porn, what if the movies start mocking Muslims, or Sikhs or Hindus or Buddhists, what if...? Those who've raised these knee-jerk What Ifs fail to acknowledge that these offences have already been covered by other legislation, like the anti-obscenity or lese majeste laws, and that the spirit of the film act should be to encourage freedom of expression instead of crushing it.

Besides, if I wanted to make porn, I would never in my full sanity submit it to the rating committee _ I would rather sell it underground (or above, in dusty corners of crummy department stores) as porn peddlers are doing it today, this minute, right now, pronto!

Harbouring a chronic, laughable mistrust against modern art, the Ministry of unCulture only flaunts the movie rating system as a subterfuge to defuse the growing anxiety of professionals and the public who are weary of fascistic censorship, but in their heart of hearts the state does not want to relinquish their god-like power to tell us what we can see. Their moralistic posturing and insistent claims that they are doing this to protect youngsters can be hardly justified, since every day we still see brain-damaging stuff on television, not to mention other media that openly plug obscure materials _ like those 1-900 lines with pictures of red-lipped women _ without raising any objection from those cultured people in traditional Thai dresses.

Last week the Thai Directors' Association and Thai Film Foundation submitted a petition to Cabinet to reconsider the law, particularly the heated issues of cutting and banning. In our attempt to update the 77-year-old Film Act, will we end up with a new law even more antiquated in mentality? Replacing something bad with what is worse would be the sickest joke of the year.

Bangkok Post Link

Thai Internet Censorship (Part Two)

What a tangled web they weave

Internet censorship critics fear new computer-crime laws

"Sorry! The website you are accessing has been blocked by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT)."

The steely eye on the cold green background has become a common sight to Internet-users in Thailand. Appearing at random, it denies access to websites on subjects ranging from car repairs to cooking. It popped up when Canadian CJ Hinke tried to enter one website looking for information on Thai-language books for his children.

"I was not very happy," he recalled. Hinke, who has been living in Thailand for the past two decades, later decided to lead an alliance to oppose Internet censorship.

"Censorship is a danger to our basic rights and freedoms. I am campaigning against it for the future of my own eight-year-old daughter and two younger grandchildren. I don't want them to come up to a blocked page that tells them 'you are too stupid to look at this'.

"I want them to grow up to be thinking people, capable of making their own decisions about right and wrong," Hinke explained. He joined the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR), opposing the Internet-censorship law, eight months ago when the group Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT), was set up.

FACT's campaign has attracted a variety of people, with the latest strategy being the handing out of CD-ROM packs with software to enable access to blocked websites as well as software for webmasters to circumvent the faceless delete key at MICT.

The CD-ROMs have been given away at Bangkok's Panthip Plaza and major universities around the country. No doubt these moves are being closely monitored by police.

Earlier, FACT also exposed MICT's supposedly confidential block lists, which show 17,793 blocked websites, even though the ministry publicly said only 20 sites had been blocked to date. "ICT Minister Sithichai Phokhaiudom did not tell the truth," said Hinke. The previous government reportedly blocked around 2,400 websites.

On May 9 the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) enacted the Cyber Crime Bill, which will come into force within 30 days after His Majesty the King endorses it.

Officially called the Computer-Related Offences Commission Act, it defines 12 Internet crimes with punishments ranging from six months' jail and a Bt10,000 fine to 20 years' jail and a Bt300,000 fine. It also defines the authority of state officials and the legal responsibility of Internet service-providers.

"Online fraud in our country is following the global trend and increasing day by day in various forms, ranging from stealing domain names at sanook.com, thailand.com and narak.com, to hacking into other people's computer systems," said Police General Yanaphol Yangyuen of the Department of Special Investigation in a report to the NLA.

In 2006 the total global damage resulting from all kinds of Internet crime was reported as US$52 billion (Bt1.8 billion), according to Yanaphol.

Proponents have suggested that younger people should be protected from "bad" websites, especially those offering pornography or those involving fraud.

Those who are too young to make decisions for themselves should be barred from these places, they say. Hinke disagrees, arguing that merely having access to improper content does not always lead to improper behaviour.

"The experience could be positive, part of the learning process, if parents give proper advice. Anyway, in practical and economic terms, can we really block online content? Technically, the bitter truth for the ministry is that it is impossible because of the way the Internet was built," he added.

CPMR's Suthep Wilailert said his concern about the bill is the excessive authority given to state officials to determine what constitutes a crime. "There is a thin line separating a computer crime from a computer non-crime. You could be accused if, for instance, you electronically touched up a friend's photo for fun. All these decisions are in the hands of state officials," he said.

Activist Sombat Boonngarm-anong of the Mirror Foundation and founder of www.bannok.com and www.siamvolunteer.com, said the bill would be a legal weapon in the hands of those with political power.

"During April and May this year, 90 websites with political content were blocked in Thailand without any reason. How can we be sure it will not happen again? Who will use this legal tool next time? Certainly the public is losing access to information," he said.

Issariya Phaireephairit, a webmaster of blogone.com, agreed with the MICT that some categories of improper content, such as pornography, should be blocked, but not websites with political content.

"Ideally, I prefer to have no censorship. In practice, I can accept the blocking of some obviously 'improper' websites," he said.

"At least the bill would make the censorship more transparent. Websites are now blocked with no reason given. When the law comes in, it should at least clearly reveal the criteria under which the sites are to be blocked," he said.

"Personally, I think computer-related laws are needed. This bill is the second, following the e-commerce law. There are at least four other Internet-related bills needed, like one on privacy, and I heard they are being drafted," Issariya said.

CPMR's secretary-general Supinya Klangnarong said Internet censorship was new and a complicated issue for Thai society. The emerging debate is a good sign, a start to the learning process for the public on the issue, she said.

"From my previous experience campaigning over media rights, I can say there are many steps in teaching the public to really understand the computer world and how to tackle it properly," she said.

Supinya believes that some 70-80 per cent of Internet-users in Thailand reject censorship but this group of people does not include the majority of Thais who know very little about the Internet and don't even use computers.

"Ask the public today, and I believe most of them would agree to the censorship. They think it is all about the blocking of porn sites. They fail to understand there are bigger issues and that censorship has negative effects," she explained.

"In principle, my organisation and I disagree with any form of censorship. We believe in the public's right to access information," she said.

FACT organiser Hinke said he would not compromise by agreeing to any kind of censorship, including books and films.

"I am considering filing a lawsuit against MICT and related authorities in the Administrative Court for illegally blocking websites," he said.

Kamol Sukin
The Nation

The Nation Link

Thai Internet Censorship

Thailand has become totally lost in cyberspace

Thailand will soon be considered a country that has some of the world's toughest measures on Internet filtering.

By default or not, the pattern of the government's responses, since the coup last September, to information and video clips deemed offensive, including political views and comments, has been uneven and disastrous. This will have far-reaching implications.

As far as the Internet is concerned, the government has transformed Thailand into a repressive regime on a par with Burma, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Iran, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. As of last week, at least 50,000 sites were banned, including commentaries, anti-monarchy sites, anti-government sites and sexually explicit sites.

In the past six years, Internet usage in Thailand has increased many-fold. At the moment, at least 12 million regular users are facing heavy censorship by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) and the Royal Thai Police. At the moment, in the absence of an Internet law, these authorities are the highest arbiters determining what sort of information and images Thais should have access to.

The Thai authorities lack the understanding and skill to respond to new communication mediums. Quite often websites are shut down because monitoring officials do not want to risk their careers if dubious Internet content goes unfiltered. Eventually, they end up blocking more online content than they should. These bureaucratic responses and this official mindset is akin to that demonstrated by officials handling requests for public disclosure of government information.

After a brief, three-year period of enthusiasm following the passage of the Access to Information Act in 1997, the number of disclosure requests has now dwindled to the point of insignificance, as the responsible authorities' preponderance to turn down requests has increased exponentially. Officials who wrongfully disclose government information would face higher fines and more severe jail terms than those who broke the law and refused to give out information.

The number of banned websites varies in Thailand. MICT minister Sithichai Pookaiyaudom said less than two dozen sites have been banned under his leadership. But informal statistics show a huge discrepancy in the number of banned sites and the authorities' claims.

The problem is that the Thai authorities do not classify in detail the criteria used for online censorship. Previously, three types of content were prohibited online: pornography, anti-monarchy sites and sites critical of former PM Thaksin's style of leadership. The majority of banned sites between 2001-2005 were related to pornography and anti-Thaksin websites. That much was clear. However, following the coup last year, any online political views and commentaries critical of the Council for National Security and its interim government have not been tolerated. Strange as it may seem, similar critical comment of the government in printed media has not been banned. Sad but true, online critics have now been perceived as conspirators in the public relations campaign carried on by Thaksin, who has money and a penchant for using all available new media.

That helps to explain the Thai authorities' hysterical attitude. The infamous incident on YouTube, which is currently banned in Thailand, was a good illustration of how the banning of a website had the immediate effect of further publicising the offending material. It immediately helped to create mirror sites around the world. Before the YouTube ban in early April, numerous video clips were placed on the popular video-share website praising the Thai king and commemorating his 60-year reign. Unofficial statistics showed that before the coup, only nine websites existed with information considered offensive to the Thai head of state. The most notorious was Manusaya.com, which was shut down last March. As of April, the Thai authorities have identified 19 more sites and blocked them. As everyone can see, the ban has the opposite effect.

Now, the new cyber crime law, officially known as the Computer-Related Crime Act, is waiting for royal approval before its enactment. On the surface, the law may give confidence to Internet users as it sets out rules and regulations that oversee the Internet. Service providers, who helped draft the law, have been pleased with the content.

However, Thai media experts are concerned that this law will do much damage to online and citizen journalism, as well as restrict overall freedom of expression. Some of the provisions would turn online journalists into criminals if certain content is considered to endanger "national security".

To top it all, Thailand already has one of the world's most conservative censorship systems, with at least 27 laws which are either anti-press or limit freedom of expression. For instance, the antiquated legislation known as the Film Act of 1930 is still being used every day by the Thai Censorship Board to determine what Thai people will see in the globalised world of the 21st century. Similarly, the 1941 Printing Act also has done great damage to press freedom and to restrict publishers and journalists.

There are rogue elements in the Thai bureaucracy and judiciary that still want to control the way the Thai people think and express themselves. They should realise that these archaic laws have greatly undermined the creativity and aspirations of Thais - and the consequences might be unfathomable.

Kavi Chongkittavorn
The Nation Editorial

The Nation Link

Delays

Carl and Anisa at SF Carnaval


Sorry about the lack of posts, but I've once again moved to a new place in downtown San Francisco and need to deal with all sorts of issues, not limited to internet connection and wifi in the lovely neighborhood. Hang on and I should be back soon with some updates, but rest assured that things are working out and getting better by the week.