thaigene2

Like many of you, I travel quite a bit in and out of the Kingdom on business - mostly to other regional cities. THAI has the best flights usually and they are a Star Alliance partner - so it makes sense to use them.

However, I noticed during the last couple of months that the 'cold lunchbox' usually only seen on Domestic Flights was a common sight on international flights around east and southeast asia. So I asked the flight attendant (privately) why that was the case - even on long journeys (e.g. Hanoi or Ho Chin Minh to BKK).

She said a recent policy was announced that dropped hot food from all flights in Southeast Asia - actually she said under 2 hours. This is regardless of the time of your flight. So in other words, if you struggled to get to the airport along the slow roads of so many SE Asian cities at say 5pm for a 6pm check-in and a 7.30 pm flight, you won't be getting a meal.

What is it with THAI? They never pay for a gate for regional flights, we always end up riding a bus for ten minutes to get to the terminal, then walk for miles to immigration, and now they're making us go hungry. May as well settle for AirAsia or one of the other cheapos.

The problem with no hot food is that it means you either eat really early before you leave for most airports (as they have very little choice for food at the terminals) or you eat really late after you've arrived at destination (and cleared immigration, collected your bags, cleared customs, etc etc).

Poor service seems to be dogging THAI. They are just a shadow of their former self. I guess dropping that New York run after so loudly bragging about it a year or so earlier should have been the tell-tale sign these guys are in big trouble. What kind of international airline has only one flight to the USA?

One makes a serious mistake to assume that trade unionism is a dead end idealogy as you say. Unions fill the breach where businesses fail to address the basic needs of the workers, such as safe working conditions, fair wages and equitable labour practices.

I think we could see a resurgance of unionism worldwide. Especially if the world economy falls off a cliff or even takes hard roll down the hill..People will begin to band together to demand action, jobs and labor protection. It's human nature..

Better your German skills would be nice too .

Ya. Ich bin ein Berliner.

What's next for PAD? Burning down the Parliament?

Here is a good 'what's next?' piece from the BBC. Both sides of the debate will concur with much of this, incuding the fascist PAD supporters (couldn't resist), and of course both sides will bitch about the bits they don't like. Still, a good summary I reckon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7613113.stm

Funny how some right-wing fat guy turned defender of democracy and running a cooking show alongside his day job of Prime Minister can cause such a fuss, but some right-wing media nutcase and his fag+ot aristocrat backer can run a TV station and both can be so same-same but so dangerous to democracy...hmm?

Zeig HEIL, Zeig HEIL..Nicht ein volk, ein vote...Ist vunderbar mit ein volk, ein Sakdina! Wo ist mein "Yellow Shirt" mein fuhrer?

Mein nama ist Sondhi, und mein Papa ist Pr+m. Zeig HEIL!

People’s Alliance for a Special Thai Example of Democracy

<H5 class=detailsubmit>Harrison George

12 September 2008

Alien Thoughts</H5> The one thing they say about the People’s Alliance for Democracy is that their media campaign is brilliant.

Oh yeah?

For those of you who have neither the time nor stomach to trawl through the websites, I have selflessly and diligently stolen here a selection of comments on the PAD from foreign sources.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The so-called People’s Alliance for Democracy proposes an audaciously undemocratic “new politics” whereby most members of parliament would be appointed. Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Geneva

The insurgents still style themselves as the “People’s Alliance for Democracy,” but this time some of their leaders are explicit in calling for just the opposite: the restoration of a full monarchy or a military-backed autocracy. Washington Post

What his [samak’s] opponents, who come under the misleading banner of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), want is a mandate on demand, by theft. Straits Times

Even though the PAD’s very name includes the word democracy, many of its supporters are skeptical of electoral politics. Time

Neither the PAD nor the DAAD advocate any recognisable form of democracy. Guardian

The rebel groups are trying to roll back the results of last December’s general elections and reinstall rule by an urban elite traditionally backed by the Thai armed forces. Irish Times

An alliance of street protesters and a reactionary elite. Financial Times

The latest ideologue [sondhi] who promises to fix their country’s democracy by -- once again -- breaking it. Wall Street Journal

What the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) did on August 26 … was a putsch. La Stampa

Authoritarian rabble … the woefully misnamed People’s Alliance for Democracy … a gruesome bunch of reactionary businessmen, generals and aristocrats. Economist

The PAD leadership is no collection of spotless democrats. The Independent (London)

The group’s name appears to be a misnomer as it is neither populist nor does it want representative democracy. Al-Jazeera

* * * * * * * * * * * *

So. A reactionary, putschist, autocratic, thieving, authoritarian, gruesome rabble of rebel ideologue insurgents. As a PR image, this can’t be that far from Al-Qaeda’s.

And all seem agreed that whatever they are after, it ain’t democracy.

Silly, silly farangs. (Well, not all farangs; you might note that the Straits Times and Al-Jazeera are in there.)

What these ignorant non-Thai commentators are completely failing to understand is that the D in PAD doesn’t refer to democracy as anyone else might know it. In fact they regularly denounce that kind of democracy as a ‘Western export’, injected into the purity of Thai society by seditious and misguided academics who have studied abroad, become infected, and surreptitiously spread the toxin into the Thai body politic.

No, what the PAD is after is a special, customized, made-for-Thailand style of democracy.

So how may this democracy differ from what the rest of the world understands by the term? There are a number of strands in the thinking about this.

One principle is that everyone has a vote and everyone in power is voted in. It’s not clear if the PAD buys into the second part of this. They’ve talked of 70% of representatives (or 50%, they’re prepared to negotiate) being appointed, or in some other way selected, to represent occupations and groups (like women and the disabled). And if you look at how the PAD operate, it seems that decisions are made at the top (by men), and the followers, well, follow. Representational democracy doesn’t really figure

Another principle is some form of safeguards to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. This doesn’t seem hopeful since the PAD has been called a tyranny of the minority. Low marks there, I’m afraid.

One of these safeguards would be a respect for human rights. Now the PAD bang on relentlessly about the right to freedom of assembly (regardless of where or how much anyone else in inconvenienced). But how about NBT’s right to freedom of speech? And they’ve got the unrepentant architect of the Krue Se massacre waiting in the wings. No, this doesn’t seem to figure.

The rule of law is normally somewhere in the mix. Everyone is equal before the law. Unless you’re a PAD leader facing a warrant, which you can blithely ignore. I mean, mob rule, which is what they’re pushing, is quite the opposite of the rule of law.

And how about just being civilized towards each other? Agreeing to disagree and all that, without slagging off on each other. I am told that inside the Government House encampment, folk do really well by each other. It’s what happens when you cross them that’s worrying. Fulminations and denunciations, often in a language that would make your mother blush. Disagreeing with someone who doesn’t stand for the Royal Anthem is fine; railing at them when they can’t easily exercise the right of reply is not so nice; printing their home address and phone number on your pet rag is just criminal.

So we’re talking about a democracy where voting may not be that important, where safeguards for minorities may not exist, where contempt for the rule of law is OK, where some human rights are respected for some, and where if you are considered to be on the wrong side of the ideological divide, you can expect to be vilified, demonized and threatened.

That is certainly a unique kind of democracy. So unique that I think the PAD deserves a name change to stop all this confusion about what ‘democracy’ means to them. How about the People’s Alliance for a Special Thai Example of Democracy? PASTED. I think that’s much clearer.

Good job. As I've said before, I'd call the PAD - the Priviledged Against Democracy. Seems reasonable, no?

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING DOES NOT INCITE NOR CONDONE THIS: BUT I wonder if there is such a thing as a left-wing coup in Thailand. Just a thought..Why does a coup 'need' to be pro-PAD? Couldn't it be pro-one-person-one-vote? (e.g. not pro-Thaksin or Pro-PPP?)

Is it possible for a pro-people, anti-elitist/sakdina, coup (but still loyal to the King) take place? Or is that just a funny thing?

Worse than a coup

Sep 4th 2008

From The Economist print edition

An authoritarian rabble should not be allowed to turf out a deeply flawed but popularly elected government

STANDING up for democracy sometimes entails standing up for some unappealing democrats. Thailand's pugnacious prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, is an especially hard man to defend. A ferocious rightist, Mr Samak was accused of inciting the policemen and vigilantes who slaughtered dozens of unarmed student protesters in Bangkok in 1976. On becoming prime minister following the election last December that restored democratic rule after a 2006 coup, Mr Samak chose for his cabinet some of the most unsavoury figures linked to the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister deposed in the coup. But with the army on the streets of Bangkok again, Mr Samak is for once, if not in the right, then at least less wrong than those calling for his head.

His government is deeply flawed. But it would be wrong and dangerous if the authoritarian rabble who have seized Government House in Bangkok forced it out of office. After violent clashes between supporters and opponents of the government, Mr Samak this week declared a state of emergency in Bangkok. The army chief backed his decision, but by mid-week was still ruling out the use of force to clear the squatters out. If the protesters, the woefully misnamed People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), do succeed, democracy in Thailand—not so long ago a beacon, by Asian standards, of pluralistic politics—will be in grave danger.

Some in the crowds at PAD rallies are liberals, appalled both at the abuses of power in Mr Thaksin's government and the sad signs that Mr Samak's is no better. The PAD's leaders, however, are neither liberals nor democrats. A gruesome bunch of reactionary businessmen, generals and aristocrats, they demand not fresh elections, which they would lose, but "new politics"—in fact a return to old-fashioned authoritarian rule, with a mostly appointed parliament and powers for the army to step in when it chooses. They argue that the rural masses who favour Mr Thaksin and Mr Samak are too "ill-educated" to use their votes sensibly. This overlooks an inconvenient electoral truth: the two prime ministers had genuinely popular policies, such as cheap health care and credit

As in the build-up to the 2006 coup, PAD leaders are trying to oust a popular government on the bogus pretext of "saving" Thailand's revered King Bhumibol from a supposed republican plot. Some of the PAD protesters reportedly believe their sit-in has the crown's tacit backing. Almost anywhere else, the police would have removed them, forcibly if necessary, by now. But it is whispered that the PAD has protectors "on high"—hardline army generals and possibly figures in the royal palace (though not the king himself). This may be nonsense; but by preventing the discussion and hence refutation of such royal rumours, Thailand's harsh, much-abused lèse-majesté law has the ironic effect of helping them spread.

In the official version of modern Thai history, the king is the great defender of peace and democracy, who comes to the rescue at moments of crisis. Now would seem to be one such moment: some wise words from the king could do much to defuse tension. Thais like to believe they are good at seeking compromise to avoid conflict. But there has been little sign of compromise in the past three years, and there is now the risk of a bad one. The elected government might be forced out of office to pacify the PAD's demagogues, it might be made to share power with the undeserving opposition Democrat party, which has shown little leadership while waiting for power to be handed it on a plate, or, as in Bangladesh, a civilian front might provide a cloak for de facto military rule.

It is just possible to imagine a decent compromise in which Mr Samak gives way to a more emollient figure from the ruling coalition—and the PAD and its supporters in the army, the bureaucracy and (if they exist) the royal palace accept the verdict of the people. But the PAD's leaders may well not stop until they have imposed their own, undemocratic vision of Thailand. In this sense they are even more pernicious than the coupmakers of 2006, who at least promised to restore elected government and, under popular pressure, did so.

Prosperous, modern and open, Thailand has so far inhabited a different era from the dark ages in which its dismal neighbour, Myanmar, languishes under a thuggish, isolationist junta. Thailand's foreign friends should make clear to the Thai elite that toppling elected governments would be a step backwards. As Myanmar has found, it might also court sanctions. Foreign tourists, seeing the unchecked disorder on their television screens, including blockades of some airports, may soon be imposing a boycott of their own.

What a perfect report. And yet again it takes the foreign 'quality' press to hit the nail on the head. Wouldn't it be something - no..wait....wouldn't it be EVERYTHING..if the Thai media would translate and publish this word-for-word?

Looks like we'll be living in Zeig-Heil land soon..When that happens, will we all be required to bow everytime a Benz drives by us? I'm sure we'll all be wearing the same clothes of course to identify our caste.

EDIT: The edit is to point out to those who don't know, that The Economist is actually a fairly right-wing publication. So all the 'anti-commie' retired Sgt Roger A Smith types can put the helmet and ballpoint back under the desk..

No - your first guess was correct. It's the humidity. I'm sure I'm not the only other one this happens to - a "good" pair of shoes of trainers/runners/sneakers comes 'unglued' when walking down the street. Not just trainers either - quality dress shoes too.

Think about it for a second - ever wonder why anything 'plastic' white, becomes yellowed after a year or two? Same-same..Think about your computer, microwave, fax machine, etc

EDIT: Especially think about your BOOKS!

I could be called a "Thaksinista" for the following question. But I don't care. Sticks and stones may hurt me but words never will. Not to say that some might get me PO'd for little bit.

Why is there hardly ever a mention of the other three parties that have charges pending against them?

Anybody ever wonder why they are still pending?

Good question - I wonder if the answer is that the PAD and their elite backers are not really interested in Thaksin/PPP, but are using this to deconstruct one-person-one vote for good?

Take your question to the next level. If the PAD goal really is, as they stated originally, to force the government to fall - then all they had to do was publically ridicule and go after the minority partners in the coalition right? After all, they are the weakest links in the chain - and coalitions are notoriously weak. If even one or two of the coalition partners were forced to drop their backing of the PPP, then Samak's government would fall within weeks to a no-confidence motion - usually a serious topic like a money-bill (e.g. the budget bill that apparently just passed).

That's why my strong suspicion is that the people behind the PAD are trying to force a coup and eventually bring about an end to Democracy for many years to come with an appointed (fascist) government to ensure their own best interests are never again challenged by one-person-one-vote. Thaksin is a side-show, but as a focal-point of considerable hatred by the unquestioning middle-classes, he works like a charm to carry out their dirty little elitist plan.

I've heard that the employers often 'call in the police' to arrest the migratns just before pay-day. The money the workers should have rec'd is then kept by the employer and sizeable tea-money goes to the police officials in charge. The migrants of course return home empty handed.

Under Thailand's new anti-trafficking act, state officials (including police I guess) receive mandatory jail time at double the rate of anyone else if they are caught up in human trafficking. I'm no expert - but paying the police to arrest the migrants and conspiring with them to then pay the police for doing so could surely be seen as breaking that law (one would hope). Alas, TIT..nothing will ever happen to the police/employer and the migrants will return home peniless.

I also wondered why any union that really represents its membership and the wider cause of solidarity would even consider climbing into bed with the PAD. It makes absolutely zero sense. A group that calls for an end to one-person-one-vote to be replaced with a cabal of rich elites backed by a traditionally right-wing military?

Unless, of course, the leadership aren't really representing their members' best interests? Remember the Teamsters and the Mafia of years gone by?

I reckon Ajarn Ji has it about right.

The Nation has a great talent for creating new words... intoxinated, just brilliant!

See what I mean? Aside from the inability to hire/attract native english language editors anymore (I guess?), they couch and twist everything they can to show the PAD in a good light and anyone supporting the majority-elected Government are portrayed in a bad light - a sort of unwashed masses at the gates..accusing them of being drunk.

Then they try to 'source' it as from a Thai TV station - without saying which one. Now I guess you could classify ASTV as a Thai "TV Station" - but by not saying it's ASTV, the impression is left with the reader that it must be one of the main channels reporting this.

It's hack journalism at best and yellow journalism at worst.

I changed my subscription from the Bangkok Post to The Nation in 2003. The Oost back then was being totally manipulated by the government in power and was really not reporting any Thai news objectively or honestly. I think that changed with the September 19th, 2006 coup. The once proud The Nation has been reduced to a free sheet and some business news. The following is my farewell letter to The Nation I sent them last week:

Today, Sunday, I received my renewal notice for my yearly subscription to The Nation. Back in 2003 I cancelled my subscription to the other English language newspaper because I felt that all political news was one sided, biased towards Government House. For about four years I was satisfied with The Nation, the editors and reporters, while I even contributed from time to time with Letters to the Editor and small pieces in the Entertainment Section. For the past year The Nation has been in such decline content and editorial wise that one can only surprised that the publication still exists.

The change of format and decision to go with the free sheet is a complete disaster. As a subscriber, basically I am paying a premium to have someone deliver a complementary publication to my home rather than have my maid go out and get it for me. Now on Saturday and especially Sunday there is nothing of news value at least to me.

I regret The Nation is in such a state that future of the publication is doubt by so many. It is like losing an old friend so there is a degree of sadness to see the once vaulted The Nation in such a withered state. I hope the owners and staff of The Nation can pull out of the current nosedive and return as a valued source of news we all once enjoyed.

I agree the Nation used to be a good read - it seemed to take a more thoughful approach to its reporting, and it covered much more 'real' news (IMHO) than the Bangkok Post. However, all that went out the window when the first PAD rallies started a couple of years ago. The unbiased reporting became shamefully elitist and pro-patronage/feudalist. Fast-forward to today, and it has become so bad that they are now simply a propaganda rag for right-wing nationalists and wealthy old families.

The Bangkok Post has begun to improve itself a bit. Their new Sunday paper out today read pretty well. Like you, I've decided not to take out a subscription again to the Nation, and whatever hi-so-nephew decided the Nation should try to follow the doomed News Day business model should be required to prostrate him/her self at the feet of their parents and pay them back every penny they wasted at Harvard Biz School or wherever they sent him/her.

Sriracha John (or any Moderator) -

Why are you (SJ) permitted to begin topics in the Thailand Newsclippings folder? I note that you are neither an Administrator nor a Moderator. THis isn't a dig - just a question since it seems you are the only one who is not the above categories that posts new topics there.

Just saw that Al Jazzera interview with Jakaprob and a rep from the Democrat party again today, Jakaprob clearly mentions ''invisible hands and sacred power''

He sure loves skating on thin ice, and he already fell through once

He blames the PAD for preventing PPP to perform right from the start.

We`ll surely get it on Youtube soon, the program was East 101.

The latest news today is that Samak says he'll go to the UN later this month for a scheduled meeting and will tell the world what's really going on in Thailand, presumably meaning 'who's behind the PAD'. So far, the PPP and Samak have been careful not to mentioned the elites invovled in this. He and his spokespeople won't even mention the word Sakdina anymore (the old-family money Feudal establishment) that the popular press has been accusing as 'hidden hands' (esp the foreign media) for several weeks now. (Some believe Jakrapob was charged with breaching lese majeste - incorrectly - but as a warning to others not to infer the Sakdinas are fighting a proxi-war via the PAD).

Maybe Samak will finally say this at the UN? But you can bet even Samak wouldn't go beyond that.

Quite clearly we are heading for something pretty nasty here as the elite/feudal backers of the PAD feel they are fighting for their privileged existance (the Feudals, not the PAD).

I think there will need to be a compromise between the Government and the Feudals/Elites (forget the PAD for a minute).

.........

To me, this is the right way forward - but it takes BOTH sides to agree to this. If they don't we're in for real trouble this time - no flowers to the soldiers this time I think.

Great post. I hope it happens soon. If the real powers are satisfied I think sondhi and the PAD will "declare victory" and go home.

Thanks - I think negotiations are now underway between the govt (speaker of the house/senate? The Govt mediator's name was reported the other day). But if he's only negotiating with a delegation of PAD protestors, then the govt is talking to the wrong people. It's a bit like the British Government talking to Sinn Fein when in reality they needed to have face to face talks with the Provos. In the end, the mediator who talked directly to the IRA found the way forward.

The govt needs to talk to the feudal backers of the PAD.

Oh -- and yes I agree with others who say this is a good report. Once again, it's the foreign media leading the real debate about what's really going on here. Notice how PAD and Sondhi have their minions running around with anti-BBC posters and anti-foreign media banners? Interesting.

Thai army disobeys PM's orders -- so what's new?

Thu Sep 4, 2008 4:05pm IST

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - In July 2006, an 85-year-old Thai general dressed up in full military regalia to address a bunch of graduating young officers. It was no ordinary passing out parade.

The general was Prem Tinsulanonda, chief adviser to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and his message was clear and aimed straight at elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawtra.

"Soldiers are like horses and governments are jockeys but not owners. You belong to the nation and His Majesty the King," Prem, also a former army chief and prime minister, said.

His comments were prophetic -- two months later, the army removed Thaksin in the 18th coup in 74 years of on-off democracy.

......

Many have said that it was Prem who was primarily responsible for the coup in 2006, not Sondhi or some lower level generals. He might be the one calling the shots today. In western countries we are used to the president or head of secular government being commander in chief, but it is not so here.

FYI: Prem is HM the King's principal advisor and confident - as head of the Privy Council. I would doubt Prem is 'calling the shots' - simply presenting his view and that of the military establishment to HM - but if he (Prem) gets no objections perhaps he then acts on his own. It's not very clear really.

However, when the Junta-installed govt was in power last year, there was a motion (or discussion - I forget which) by the 'appointed parliament' to widen the already strict lese majeste laws to prevent discussion or debates about Prem and other memebers of the Privy Council. It didn't happen in the end...but I think you get the idea..They were trying to close all the loopholes for any dissent against right-wing coups and campaigns - and all discussions about who may or may not be behind them. If they had succeded, this thread would have been deleted by the Mods - or never posted in the first place.

Let me just say that for anyone thinking of buying one of these new condos I would take a serious look into buying a townhouse, For only 5million you can get 3 floors in an area like Sathon. This compared to 10million for an overpriced 60sqm 2 bedroom room in one of these new and fancy condo buildings.

While I share your general view about over-inflated prices, over-building of projects, etc., you need to bear in mind that a townhome falls under the same rules as buying a house/land - farangs cannot own land - that includes townhomes. I do agree they are appealing - though who knows that a couple of years after all the untis are sold, that your neighbour won't start repairing motorcycles for a living in his driveway? Meanwhile the neighbour on the other side starts selling noodles with a bunch of little metal tables set up?

Quite clearly we are heading for something pretty nasty here as the elite/feudal backers of the PAD feel they are fighting for their priviledged existance (the Feudals, not the PAD).

I think there will need to be a compromise between the Government and the Feudals/Elites (forget the PAD for a minute). If they get their coup, and impsoe an appointed fascist-style right-wing Government, that could be the spark the eventually leads to a civil war. There are so many examples of this in history..the Spanish Civil War is one that pops to mind right away (though the circumstances were a bit different).

There really needs to be a compromise - because while Democracy can and will eventually win the day, the rich and corrupt familes and their 'connections' will always be around. It's time to take a step abck and see to it that they are not cornered, and that they can still have some of their cake, retain their positions in society, but in return allow Thailand and its people to rise as a nation of equals.

To me, this is the right way forward - but it takes BOTH sides to agree to this. If they don't we're in for real trouble this time - no flowers to the soldiers this time I think.

So VERY interesting that HRM Liz's representative publicly seeks out Kuhn Abhist,

for a talk on Parliament's grounds, not his office. No backroom briefing here.

And POINTEDLY not speaking with Kuhn Samak.

Apparently Samak attended a function at the British Embassy the other night at the invitation of the Ambassador - think it involved a visit of Prince Andrew..

So much for that theory..

EDIT: Sorry about double post - server slow.

So VERY interesting that HRM Liz's representative publicly seeks out Kuhn Abhist,

for a talk on Parliament's grounds, not his office. No backroom briefing here.

And POINTEDLY not speaking with Kuhn Samak.

Apparently Samak attended a function at the British Embassy the other night at the invitation of the Ambassador - think it involved a visit of Prince Andrew..

So much for that theory..

They may not be doing a very good job of it. A number of Thais have told me that their attraction to the soaps is waiting for the inevitable scene where an elite gets their "come-uppance" and is either mocked, had their hair pulled, ridiculed, pushed into a mud puddle, or any other of the myriad of events that seemingly almost always befall the elite characters in these soaps. The non-elites revel in watching these scenes.

That's very true SJ, except the hair-pulling femme fatale and her hero are, to an episode, other opposing elite families (the 'good' vs the 'bad') or occasionally a middle-class 'under-dog'.

There hav e been a few exceptions - Mae Aye Sa-oon (Mae Aye Weeping) was a notable one a few years back - a peasant girl is tricked into working as a prostitute by her friend who eventually ends up working as a hi-so hooker...and then all the usual love-triangle stuff with the rich boyfriend/hero.

Another exception was the short series about the Lao maids - a comedy of course - who worked for a mafia Jao-Pah family..but it was to make you laugh at the mafiosa and the maids who became detectives..Again - it all revolves around the rich and pwerful.

....... And shut down the bloody TV stations that serve nothing but soaps to the masses -

if Thais don't get soaps, they'll do something, such as protest the government -

and be it just to get their soaps back.

Go PAD!

At least they DO something.

Regards

Thanh

LOL so true.

Remove the soporific of the masses, and the masses become restless.

Let the free flow of ALL opinion go to the masses, and the masses become restless.

Inform the masses that their leaders are stealing from them, the masses become restless.

Inform the masses that their leaders don't respect their wishes, and the masses become restless.

Answer: mindless soaps with characters you can identify with dealing with

everyday problems of NO CONSEQUENCE WHAT-SO-EVER to the country.

Well, well...something we all agree on!

Bet you didn't know that the soaps are used here to keep the masses in line, now did you? They re-inforce the feudalist/guanxi families as the rightful rulers of the country, while everone else is a servant. The proletariat audiences love it because it provides escapism into a fantasy world of beauty and wealth. But the sinister thread is as I mentioned above - to make sure you know how powerful the rich really are - and never to cross them.

It's a tool widely used in other countries too. There aren't many soaps about poor people and everyday lives in THailand are there? Yet in many, many other countries those types of soaps are quite common.

East Enders produced by the BBC (or some other company now, not sure) for many years was the most-watched soap opera in the world, translated into dozens of languages. Now I believe the Koreans are big in exports.

Anyway, point is that here in Thailand, the soaps of just another thought-control tool of the elites to brainwash the collective society.