The week that was in Thailand news: Why worry about the wallies in the White House?

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Why worry about the wallies in the White House?

 

 

I learnt as a cub reporter growing up in South London that what happens locally is likely to have a much greater impact on the individual than international events.  What happens to you personally on a daily basis, maybe just yards from your home, is more important than all the rhetoric from politicians across the globe.

In a nutshell, we are more concerned with what happens at the end of the soi than the war of words between the nutter in North Korea and the wally in the White House. While the latter pair have the potential to blow us all to kingdom come we are far more interested in the kingdom on our own doorsteps.

Well, I certainly am.

I am often looking at my adopted homeland thinking about safety – especially as I have a young family to care about. Despite being well aware since I came here in the 1980s that danger lurks in many corners I have always felt that Bangkok in particular and Thailand in general is a safe place.

Sure I’ve seen guns, been close to violence, witnessed unspeakable carnage and seen more dead bodies than I care to think about. But I would point out, perhaps with a little self-righteousness, that none of that has been directed at or caused by me.

Unless you count the times when the missus suspected me of playing away, of course…ouch.

I have somehow managed half a million kilometers on bikes and in cars without a serious accident. That is perhaps more to do with luck, though doesn’t the expression go that you make your own in that regard.

I have always felt that Thailand is a place where I do not feel threatened. And I firmly believe that if you do not go looking for trouble you are unlikely to find it. Just as if you do like to “haa reuang” – you may well go home in a box.

Most people have anecdotal evidence about the times they faced danger or were in a threatening situation. These being events that are close to home are what forms a certain mindset.

Mine have been limited but nevertheless memorable. There was the occasion during the 1992 coup when gangs roamed the streets causing damage – and threatened my pregnant wife.

The time when a protester spoke very roughly to me as I was trying to use a road on my motorcycle they had blocked off during the street protests around Central World.

The occasion when I saw a woman attacked with a shoe in a melee at Ratchayothin when soldiers tried to break up a street protest in 2014.

All of these had political roots but affected me personally as they hit close to home both physically and metaphorically.

To wit, every week in the news right now comes a fresh story about the date and nature of the next elections. But democracy seems elusive and I fear that political stability is as far away as it was in 2014, perhaps more so.

This week started with an interview with the head of Pheu Thai saying that no matter what His Generalness would not come back as PM when democracy returns. I was somewhat stunned to see that The Nation assumed he would.

Having no election for several years has at least kept the streets cleaner what with no need for all those millions of placards  exhorting us – well them as I cannot vote – to choose Number 7 over Number 3.

The candidates all wear graduates’ gowns or medals – I wouldn’t vote for any of them.

Who could forget those posters featuring massage-mafia-man of the people Chuwit pointing his fingers at you as you rode by saying he was the one to end all corruption. He went to jail for it, of course.

I used the theme of his posters to raise awareness of the election at my school by doing a mock-up of me pointing like Chuwit to get students to hand their homework in on time and pay attention in class!

As Chuwit I like making a point by using a bit of humor though like him I failed miserably in my objectives.

Down in the south of Thailand it was very interesting – and pleasing - to see students at a Chumporn school also being very political; they protested outside the gates to demand the sacking of an English teacher, a Thai I might add.

She has been hitting the secondary students though in the Thai media that fact was buried well below the detail that she was wearing short skirts to class – when she bothered to turn up.

Without suggesting sedition for one minute, it really is high time that the students of Thailand led the way in pressuring the authorities whose main role in improving things in schools seems to be to sweep everything under the shag pile and create committees that achieve zilch.

Then we saw a story about the need for educational reform “now that Thailand is entering 4.0”. Thai education has needed dramatic reform since “entering the 40s” was what they might have said – it’s hardly just a modern need.

The overhaul required is massive – students need to question and think and that goal, as simple as it sounds, challenges the whole social structure, not just educational systems.

Feudalism in both politics and the nation’s schools will not go gently into the night but will rage, rage against the dying of the light.

If I worry about anything in Thailand, it is that.

The week began with the latest news on Yingluck’s escape and the question posed in the media: Had a crime been committed in helping her to flee?

Helpful Rooster answer: only if those responsible are low enough on the pecking order.

I screamed at the TV that the authorities don’t know their arse from their elbow prompting Mrs Rooster to ask me to explain. As is my childish wont, I translated directly leading her to believe I was talking about boxing.

Perhaps referring to the WBC champ who became a cop in Sisaket this week. That was a quirky story predictably hijacked by the keyboard curmudgeons of Thaivisa who burble on about brown envelopes as if it displays cultural insight.

Personally I have nothing but respect for Thai boxers. I invited several champions to my school to do inspirational talks and met one or two at nightclubs years ago. All of them have been utter gentlemen, superb sportsmen, brilliantly modest and as hard as flippin’ nails!

Midweek came the comeuppance in absentia of said Ms Shinawatra – five years. No surprise there as was arch foe Prayut prattling on about knowing where she is.

He must be a clairvoyant or maybe he has been speaking to those toads again. Either way himself or his hopeless spies seem to have been totally hoodwinked after it was revealed Yingluck is in England.

General P kept digging his hole by stating that they would seek her extradition. Mrs May may be annoying but she won’t be handing over a fellow female PM to an unelected soldier any time soon.

Meanwhile, I am absolutely sure that Big Too and Big Toupee will get on like a White House on fire when they meet this coming week in Washington.

Trump and Prayut!  One with a mandate of racist hillbillies, the other with none at all unless you consider the rhetoric of conciliation and returning happiness to the people as some kind of puerile plebiscite; they deserve and are welcome to each other.

However, the Thai military will feel they have at least got a foot back in the skeptical Western door while Drumpf will try to remember if it’s Thighland or Nambia and urge some support for sanctions against rocket man in Ping Pong Yang.

One amusing story I noted was porn star Cherry Samkhok who said she had put her revealing costume on back to front. Yes, I’m sure you did, but at least it reminded me fondly of a dear departed Scottish friend who arrived back home to his Thai wife late at night after a “night drinking with his mates”. His shirt was now inside out.

According to my friend his trusting spouse accepted his excuse, whatever it was. If that happened to me ducks would instinctively gather outside my house as soon as I arrived home.

Another sexy woman in the news was the BMTA “conductress” who turned out to be a presenter who had won a beauty contest. The forum is always full of posters who say such beauties are fake and could not hold a candle to their own “’er indoors”.

Bless – do they have Specsavers in Thailand?

Myriad posters screamed that the story was sexist – duh, of course it was! This is Thailand and all the translator was trying to do was represent what the Thais are bombarded with every day, albeit packaged in English that the nanny states would frown on.

LOS stands for the ‘Land of Stereotypes’ where everyone is pigeonholed ad nauseam and dissension is seen as vaguely odd.

Though I drew the line at the Swiss guy robbed by the lady boy the other week – the Thai press said that the victim came from the land of the windmills….

But frankly, reading some of the nonsense posted on Thaivisa in the forum and on Facebook, there are more than enough westerners who stereotype – the story of the two Cameroonians and the rape of a Thai woman being a case in point.

Notwithstanding dramatic changes in testimony before their arrests – one was actually a Kalasin English teacher not a football agent - racist attitudes die hard and many Thaivisa posters are little more than pot bellies calling the kettle….er…black.

So to this week’s Rooster awards. My “Comment of the Week” again goes to forum wag-monger “klauskunkel” who said in reference to my midweek rant about Thais taking my children’s pictures without asking:

“Here’s the solution, Rooster – charge them money”.

Believe me, I have tried that and naturally got no richer as a result – but I agree that usually the best way to fight back in Thailand is to employ fun and sarcasm – be sanukastic if you like.

If the target is Thai they smile and kind of get the message, and if they are American they get really annoyed – so it’s win-win.

Finally, my “Darwin Award for Services to the Gene Pool” goes to Phansak – or Pete – the Buriram man who won the lottery then told the police all about it and had his two tickets stolen from under his nose. The story became the soapiest and soppiest tale of the week with all the twists and turns of the cheapest Channel 7 TV drama.

Anyway, I know what I would do if I was ever lucky enough to win 12 million baht on the lottery.

For once in my life, I’d keep my bloomin’ mouth shut.


Rooster

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-09-30

 

 

 

 

[tedburna]

How can you say president Trump was elected by racist hillbillys. That my friend is a very Ignorant statement. And his name Is Trump MR. To you.  Not drumpf. I cant believe you are alowed to write on this forum.

Edited September 30, 2017 by tedburna

[George Bowman]

Who is this rooster guy? Initially, I was thinking it was another poster who was dribbling on about living in Thailand. And, I was right. After living over here for a long time, I did not want to read another guy's view on how to survive in the LOS. And, I was wrong. Thanks for clearing up some of the confusion, rooster guy!

[seoulbrooks]

President Trump was elected by racist hillbillys. Are you aligned with Hillary Clinton in your political views and comments?  Extremely ignorant comment.  Suggest you concentrate on your own countries political problems. 

[zyphodb]

Whoops, I think you may have offended some of our "friends" from overseas Rooster...  

Edited October 1, 2017 by zyphodb

[Bundooman]

20 hours ago, tedburna said:

How can you say president Trump was elected by racist hillbillys. That my friend is a very Ignorant statement. And his name Is Trump MR. To you.  Not drumpf. I cant believe you are alowed to write on this forum.

Cobblers!

'Drumpf' is an excellent title for the clown you have in the White house. He has no respect for anyone - why should anyone show HIM respect. He's a <deleted>!

 

[zaphod reborn]

Quote

mandate of racist hillbillies

 

That's his 30% base that still supports him.  He won the electoral college vote through unlawful tampering by Russian operatives, either through fake news propagated via social media or, in some states, by actual hacking of voting machines which invalidated votes in heavy Democratic party districts.  It will take another year or two for all the evidence to come out, but even now we're seeing trickles of proof of a stolen election.  He and Prayuth should have a lot in common with which to build a profitable relationship.

[sirineou]

On 9/30/2017 at 4:25 AM, rooster59 said:

In a nutshell, we are more concerned with what happens at the end of the soi than the war of words between the nutter in North Korea and the wally in the White House.

I lost interest after reading the first few paragraphs. Perhaps the Op was being sarcastic and had a greater point to be made later on ,if so I never got to it, but from the first few Paragraphs it seems like a very myopic opinion to say the least.. 

[mannymo]

10 minutes ago, sirineou said:

I lost interest after reading the first few paragraphs. Perhaps the Op was being sarcastic and had a greater point to be made later on ,if so I never got to it, but from the first few Paragraphs it seems like a very myopic opinion to say the least.. 

I would say the only nutter around here is named after a fowl. cockadoodledoo. LOL.

[wakeupplease]

On 9/30/2017 at 9:25 AM, rooster59 said:

“Here’s the solution, Rooster – charge them money”.

Try This

Get rid of the Thai Computer Crimes act and that would allow people to come forward and blow the whistle on those at the top who are corrupt.

 

Job Done

[Jane Dough]

1 hour ago, sirineou said:

I lost interest after reading the first few paragraphs. Perhaps the Op was being sarcastic and had a greater point to be made later on ,if so I never got to it, but from the first few Paragraphs it seems like a very myopic opinion to say the least.. 

 

Understandable...Trump supporters must find it the devil's own job to get past 140 characters.

[Artisi]

4 hours ago, zyphodb said:

Whoops, I think you may have offended some of our "friends" from overseas Rooster...  

Some people have absolutely no sense of humour, the reason most US TV has to use canned laughter. 

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, Jane Dough said:

 

Understandable...Trump supporters must find it the devil's own job to get past 140 characters.

Sorry I never got to the part about Trump.

[kickstart]

On 01/10/2017 at 6:50 AM, missoura said:

Who is this rooster guy? Initially, I was thinking it was another poster who was dribbling on about living in Thailand. And, I was right. After living over here for a long time, I did not want to read another guy's view on how to survive in the LOS. And, I was wrong. Thanks for clearing up some of the confusion, rooster guy!

 

By the way, these are  hens not roosters