The past week has provide a handful of front-page-newspaper-worthy incidents involving unlucky, unfortunate, and/or misguided post-secondary students and one professor–all separate cases. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 3% [?]
Over the last month, villagers in Kanchanaburi province of Western Thailand, particularly those with women and young girls in their family have been freaking out about rumors going around regarding a pervert, apparently skilled in black magic and the art of mysteriously disapearing after committing naughty deeds on women and young girls in the middle of the night.
Popularity: 4% [?]
As my 30 baht plate of Grapow Basil Stir fry was being cooked at the neighborhood eatery, I did what I and most Thais typically do while waiting–I grabbed the latest copy of Thai Rath newspaper to catch up on the latest action. Indifferent to the featured political headline giving hype to Thailand’s current Prime Minister, Samak, I scrolled the smaller pictures, disappointed to find no raw corpses as is the norm. So, I went to the next best thing, a man in hand cuffs.
In contrary to the west where the front page features one or two of the most crucial world or national stories, Thai newspapers’ front pages are flooded with at least half a dozen different stories, usually domestic and almost always to do with some type of crime–murder, rape, drugs, and scandals are the most marketable to Thai audiences, who are lured and aroused by graphic and controversial pictures that contain brief explanations with the page reference for full story to read more.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Surfing the web, I was quite taken by this story about a group of Burmese volunteers who had been cleaning up corpses in Myanmar’s cyclone stricken coastal plains and river beds.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Just when human kind were confident we had South Asian nature in check, she pulls out an old cyclonic hat trick, and seizes bodies by the masses. And for once in a long time, Bangladesh and India isn’t her focal points.
It’s been dark times for hundreds of thousands of coastal Burmese the last few days, since a dreaded South Asian sea storm swept over the west and south coasts of the conflict-ridden country. The initial reports released on Saturday and Sunday reporting that the storm was responsible for several hundred casualties were apparently over-underestimated with the latest ‘official’ tolls exceeding 10,000 sacrafices to nature–with warnings that it ‘could’ rise. Perhaps twice as much if not more.
For more official coverage, see this BBC report as well as this report aftermath footage video.
Popularity: 14% [?]
With government migrant immigration and labor laws firm and strict as ever, it is only humans natural reaction to find other ways around the system and tap into that which is forbidden. After all, Adam and Eve need to eat the apple–whether you believe in such a tale or not, it would be foolish not to acknowledge the true nature of humanity’s dark side.
Every now and then, our stubbornness, fueled by greed masked by need, gets the best of us, and nature gets a counter attack on humanity’s breach of the balance. Someone’s got to die. This article, as you might have gathered from its title, focuses on the death of 54 unlucky illegal workers from Myanmar whose life was tragically ended in suffocation, locked inside a human smuggling container disguised as a seafood truck.
The truck, originating in Ranong, where the border jumpers from Myanmar boarded from fishing boats, was on its way to Phuket, operating in what is believed to be a major human-labor smuggling operation which supplies black market manpower to various regions of Thailand in demand of cheap yet untaxed (at least not collected by the government) labor.
According to this international source, 47 more workers were lucky enough to escape the horrid suffocation death that overtook 17 and 37 of their male and female ill-fated comrades–a horrifying creeping end inside an unventilated, pitch dark, locked seafood container that was reported to be capable of holding sufficient oxygen for just 30 individuals for half an hour. It was nearly two hours and some 100 kilometers down th road when the driver of the truck finally decided to stop after being notified from within the container where one of the workers was reported to have a cell phone. As are such ‘traffic’ cases in this part of the world, the driver fled the scene in Phanga province.
Well, who would want to take the blame for such an incident? Is it all the driver’s fault? Is it only the driver’s fault? What about the greedy underground ring that umbrellas such an operation? What about the workers who weren’t satisfied with a basic existence in Myanmar where a university graduate’s starting salary is about 200 baht (about 6 USD$) a day? What about the demand that initiated such a ring to exist in the first place?
Ah, the simplicity of this case is scary, and shouldn’t be surprising. The person at fault clearly is…
Popularity: 16% [?]
Out and about on the streets and sights of Bangkok, there’s a spectacle blend of modern and ancient smells, sounds and sights to be had. On one end of the city, you’ll find yourself surrounded by towering skyscrapers, hi tech shopping malls, hi-speed sky train and subway transit systems, posh fashion districts, and IT hubs full of all the latest mobile gadgets and technologies. Once you’ve had enough of the future and present, it’s quite easy to warp yourself back to a Thailand of the past just by going to a different side of town–where highlights include fisherman, schoolboys, and traditional wooden long tail boats occupying the river and canals that feed and dissect the community painted with golden spired temples and stupas that characterize the glorious Siam slowly yet rapidly fading into chapters in a history book.
Yet, country censuses, statistics, and quotas continue to tell the world that Thailand is nation full of devout Buddhists. But is it really? By face value, maybe so, but have the Thais truly embraced the concept and fundamental ethics and philosophy that Buddhism represents? Like most other religions and cultural ‘ways of life’, Thai Buddhism calls for a strict code of life that one must come to terms with and ultimately be rid of materialism and attachment–the cause of suffering– if one wishes to follow in the footsteps of enlightenment of the original Buddha, Lord Sidartha.
Popularity: 18% [?]
After six years motorcycle driving experience in Thailand and counting, with all his limbs and organs still in working order, the author has gained sufficient experience hours on end on thousands of kilometers of urban and rural roads, paths, streets, sois, and highways, giving him the valuable insight, hindsight, and perspective to share with others the wisdom that has kept him alive all these years, and will continue to do so as long as he exercises and applies all that has been learned. There is various material written by tourists and residents about how to properly drive and live in Thailand, but don’t believe all you read. For example,
…
Offense is the best defense
You know those defensive driving classes you took at home. Forget them. Now. In Thailand, offense is the best defense. If you drive defensively in Thailand you’ll just confuse everyone - take the road by the horns and go like the clappers baby.Stop for no man (or woman, dog, tourist, mule…)
Stopping or slowing down can be a bad idea. Especially if there is a tourist bus behind you doing 140km/h on tight bend. If you can’t drive like a bat outta hell, don’t drive at all. Thais will thank you for staying out of their way.…
Excerpts from an article entitled Driving in Thailand and living to tell the tale
This is not good advice to follow and will prove to be a dangerous and reckless approach that could put you at more risk. Safe driving, especially in Thailand, requires a balance of confidence (i.e. knowing when/how to be aggressive, pass other vehicles, etc.) and reasoning (i.e. knowing when/how to be defensive, yielding other vehicles to pass) Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 26% [?]
Whether you are a permanent resident, long term visitor, or just on brief holiday to the Kingdom of Thailand, there’s a likely possibility that you have already, or at least are considering to wager with one of Thailand’s deadliest dealers. When the key turns the ignition in the Land of Smiles, the stakes are as high as they get; The non-repayable debt that you’re risking has high potential to snug you down in a deep hole, for an all expenses paid trip to early retirement. Are you ready to die? Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 22% [?]
In the western academia world, we’ve constantly heard about the cultural and genetic ‘melting pots’ of North America and Europe–societal collages blending various backgrounds customs, beliefs, values, and more obviously, genetic and physical features such as skin tone and pigmentation. This image of a diverse globalizing west tends to put the rest of the world in a mono shade.
Thailand, for example, is somewhere Thai people live. Yet many might not even be able to tell you that much. In fact, many supposedly educated westerners couldn’t even tell you the difference between Taiwan and Thailand, two completely different nations and cultures. To these ignorant individuals, Asia is just one big place where yellow skinned, slanted eyed people dwell among jungles and rice paddies, dreaming about the magical day that they can migrate to the west. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 19% [?]
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