The week that was in Thailand news: Catching up with the computer age: "How splendidly we progress"

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Catching up with the computer age: "How splendidly we progress"

 

 

A major - some might say ground-breaking development happened in the Rooster household this week. 

 

Mrs Rooster stopped watching the Thai soaps.

 

Okay, I should qualify that. It was not complete cold-chicken withdrawal from the bells and whistles banality of Channels 3 and 7 and co but a staged move to a medium where she hopes to have more control.

 

Rooster had just upgraded to a Smart TV meaning that YouTube is now available on a large screen and after a few lessons from me - akin to the blind leading the blind - we were ready to proceed on a new life journey a bit freer from the shackles of True.

 

At the back of my mind - alright, at the forefront - was preparation for when Facebook start screening English Premier league matches on their platform (as we computer experts call it....). They have already acquired the rights to La Liga in Spain in the Indian sub-continent, or so I read on the BBC, so this was an opportune time to move forward into the Brave Newish World of 'advanced' technology. 

 

Mrs Rooster will chose her soaps from past editions that she has already watched, the children can watch endless videos of American teens making slime and I can get some peace....

 

I'm not completely useless when it comes to matters involving computers, mobile phones and iPads - life as I now know it would be kind of impossible if I was. But like many people who grew up before even color TV was widespread lets just say I am technologically challenged. 

 

I have Instagram and Twitter but have never used them to any great degree though I admit to spending more time on Facebook - usually because of work - than I think is good for both my health and what is left of my sanity.

 

At school back in the 70s my mates and I would throw stones to torment the bespectacled geeks who stayed behind after school in the Computer Club rather than play football with us men. Losers! 

 

I shouldn't doubt that their like are probable the drivers of the red plate Ferrari that we saw wrapped round a tree this week. 

 

I thought Dot Com was my dad's cleaning lady but while I never became a footballer and could never buy a Ferrari, thankfully the 250cc Hondas mean I can go faster in Bangkok's appalling traffic.

 

The best item of technology I ever possessed - and this remains true to this day - was the 1978 rental of a Betamax VCR. Getting back home to the 2.15 from Haydock after going to see Spurs play live was an almost spiritual experience even if my horses still lost. 

 

Our family had only got a color TV in 1977 - well after the neighbors who we used to visit when there was something special on the telly. Kids today just don't get it do they!

 

I bought my first computer from Seri Center near Bang Na in 1996. It cost much more than an infinitely superior laptop would these days. But I still seem to stare at that little wheel revolving in the center of the screen for far too long - some things never change. 

 

Around the same time I was introduced to new meanings of the words "icon" and "mouse" during a Patana International School in- service training session and I was soon to discover the difference between internet and intranet and that my Australian colleagues were not nipping off to Bondi when they talked about surfing after teaching. 

 

But as much as the older generation have tried to play catch-up with the computer age it is still glaringly obvious that the world has not adjusted to the waves of new technology. Governments the world over - not just in Thailand - still grapple with the consequences of people who are better connected than ever and potentially more able to access information. 

 

While people like me wonder if the average Joe really is better informed than they used to be or if they have just been overloaded with dross and no longer have the ability to decide what is true and what is fake. 

 

We are bombarded with stories and it is hard even for intelligent people to know what is true and what is rot or even to know when they are being trolled. With Drumph calling the media the enemy of the people and Prayut spouting on about fake news like there is no 'prung nee', we are assailed by conflicting views.

 

Not to mention pictures of everyone's dinner on Facebook.

 

No wonder many of the older generation hanker after their youth when there was more simplicity.

 

The news as given to us by online organisations like Thaivisa is now instantaneous. Comment has become so integral to the experience and it is often more entertaining than the news itself.  Some people clearly don't bother with reading the news. The threads contain insidious views that can slip casually under the radar creating a cyberspace of half truth, innuendo and deceit. 

 

Be careful out there......or is it in there?

 

Once again the week on Thaivisa threw up a glitzy mix of soap opera and related nonsense - was it just me or was there far more patent rubbish than usual? Certainly in the translations I did from the Thai media this week the answer to that was a resounding "yes"! 

 

Just take a look at the follolwing rogues' gallery of drivel:

 

The week began with the story that Thailand is now the most dangerous country for the Brits. Well, at least they didn't say that Thailand had become the most dangerous because of THEM......we can leave that honor to the Russians.

 

The story had a misleading headline - a common feature of click-bait news. The real gist of the story was that Thailand had the most insurance claims. The inference could just have easily been that Thailand was safe but fraudulent claims in connivance with corrupt officials were what was annoying the profit hungry insurance companies. 

 

Fallout from claims by the Bangkok governor that gay people were definitely not engaging in sex in his parks continued. One location now has just one "entry point" though that seemed a bit saucy. The governor had offered 100,000 baht for proof of Bonking in Bankers but the discovery by maids of thousands of used condoms and soiled tissue indicates he may soon be out of pocket. 

 

Not to worry, patrols have been stepped up and doubtless we shall soon have a committee set up to ensure it doesn't happen again. Throw in a few transfers of maids to inactive cleaning posts and everything should be back to normal quicker than you can squeeze a tube of KY.

 

Also on a sex theme - is it never far from the news in Thailand - a government ministerial committee has decided to back calls from the Education Ministry to stop students having any relationships whatsoever. This will be ideal training for the rest of their lives buried in their smartphones. Students returning from abroad with wild notions like the sharing of ideas will be sent for readjustment at the generals' popular boot camps. 

 

Sanook told us that no prostitution was found in Pattaya's Walking Street. Okay, bar fines are not prostitution but the forum reacted with suitable outrage as the great majority of posters bashed the local constabulary for being unable to see beyond their outstretched arms. Come on people, get a grip! If they want to find something they will, if the don't they won't. 

 

This was just their way of saying "Come to Pattaya - the water's lovely".

 

A neighbor unable to sleep got upset that a young guy with an audio system in his pick-up wouldn't turn the noise down. As annoying as this might be I found it more disturbing that several forum posters thought it was acceptable for him to go and get his .22 and shoot the 20 year old's brains out. 

 

It makes me glad to report that my own neighbors are all quiet and respectful. Any noise is kept to a minimum and that goes for the construction of the Green Line extension that is only a stone's throw away. My area of Bangkok is very noisy on the main roads but in this residential quarter at least you can hear a pin drop. So much better than those ghastly villages where the cocks scream all day long, every temple has a loudspeaker and the dogs would test the patience of a saint. 

 

Several stories came into the category of SBO - stating the bleeding obvious. Sanook told us that despite the evidence of the soaps it was illegal for a "mia luang" (main wife) to slap a "mia noi" (mistress) whenever she felt like it. The fact that this would be news to my first wife does not in any way negate the SBO tag. She would also see very little wrong in feeding ducks with male parts believing it to be a Buddha given right when a woman is slighted. 

 

She once told me of a case where a woman had sliced through a man's philandering manhood then placed the Member for Mukdahan in a liquidizer just to make sure that a Bobbitt style reattachment was not possible. 

 

The kids at the time wondered why daddy was ditching the Moulinex that evening. 

 

No charges were laid by police in Pathum Thani against the man that hurled his bitch onto the ground after she bit him. Maybe that was because it was a dog. Watchdog Thailand complained and Rooster was most surprised at the lack of police action as dogs enjoy better canine rights than humans do their own. 

 

Could it be that the man turned up at the police station with his mutt none the worse for wear making everyone coo and say what a lovely bitch she was. It wasn't even necessary to 'wai' in apology.

 

Two stories kind of beggared belief but in the context of Thailand were pretty ordinary.

 

The first concerned the taxi driver caught watching porn while he was driving. Oh, no...he said....when hauled in by the DLT..... that was not porn that was just a raunchy scene from a Thai movie.  It had been in the theaters, he argued in his defense. Was it me or did everyone seem to forget that watching movies while trying to negotiate the Thai roads may not be in the best interests of passengers.

 

I wonder how many of the 58 corpses at the scene of accidents, as reported in a Daily News story from Wednesday, were a direct result of drivers or riders looking at moving images on their technology when they might have been observing what was happening ahead?

 

The second was the praise proffered by the ubiquitous Thai netizens for the cop who tied a father's little girl onto him with a cloth and cord on a motorbike rather than fine him for riding with one hand and holding onto her with the other. 

 

Double Rhetorical Question Alert......

 

When will the day come when the netizens condemn such a father and roast such a cop for being  lazy, selfish and irresponsible twats for endangering young lives? Can anyone tell where Rooster's sympathies lie?

 

But when a woman went online to complain about her bank sticking to life insurance policy rules, a Thai bar girl told her fellow countrywomen to take care of their knickers when working abroad after theft by a Cambodian maid and then, to cap it all, the pocket general uttered some Taksinesque tripe about solving Bangkok's traffic woes in 3 months.....I pretty much lost the will to live - technology or no technology.

 

On a positive note the Cambodians managed to show the Thais some decent police work and come up with Sia Uan or Mr Fat who is allegedly behind the slayings of Spy and Fos at Buddha Mountain. Now it is up to the Thais to make sure he doesn't slip through their grasp after extradition and gets what Rooster in writing is always trying to aim for..... a decent sentence. 

 

How about 500 years doubled on admission. 

 

Also on a serious note it was interesting to see the DSI cracking down on an advisory law firm who are facing trouble for arranging nominees to help foreigners get round the land ownership and business laws. Forum posters said they were both worried  and not worried in equal numbers, probably commensurate with how long they have been in Thailand. My own analysis of stories and situations like this is that it usually involves the Chinese; they are actively involved in buying up Thailand at the moment and other nationalities need not worry one iota. 

 

Also interesting apropos this story was the surname of one of the alleged miscreants arrested in Phuket. He had the same last name as a certain Kobkarn Wattanavrangul the former tourism and sports minister who was sacked after proposing the end of the sex industry and the introduction of durian flavored Kit-Kats to boost visitors to Thailand. 

 

I am not casting aspersions.....as posters on Facebook love to say insouciantly...just sayin'.

 

Meanwhile, it was remiss of me not to wish Her Majesty the Queen a happy birthday last Sunday. Mother's Day produced one of the most touching stories of the year concerning Thai dad Chartchai from Sai Yok in Kanchanaburi whose wife left him several years ago to bring up two young children on his own. 

 

Instead of having his kindergarten nippers miss out on their school's Mother's Day ceremony Chartchai borrowed his own mum's clothes and received the appreciative garlands from his little ones. 

 

I'd like to meet him and shake his hand. 

 

Finally to round off the theme of today's world and technology I would like to quote from the Christopher Hitchens' book 'The Missionary Position' about Mother Teresa. The late great journalist said in reference to one of her supposed miracles (and I paraphrase slightly):

 

"Modern technology and communications have ensured that rumor and myth can be transmitted with ever greater speed and efficiency to the eyes and ears of the credulous".

 

"How splendidly we progress".

 

Rooster

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-08-18

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

 

The story had a misleading headline - a common feature of click-bait news.

 

-- [emoji767] Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-08-18  

 

Interesting how my use of the hyphenated word quoted above earned me a short holiday to “ brush up on the forum rules “

[emoji848][emoji848][emoji848]

 

But despite that, as usual an enjoyable account of the weeks activities, somewhat early this week, but still a good read to enjoy with a cuppa while the “pitter patter” of a mini deluge outside my window !!

[upu2]

The " most dangerous because of THEM......we can leave that honor to the Russians" is not actually total true is it? Yes there quite a few undesirable Russians as there are of every countries nationals that come to Thailand but the biggest problem is the way the locals are allowed to get away with unsafe practices. It is kind of misleading to say it is the Russians who are responsible for the dangers in the country. If they are the most dangerous tourists that visit make it clear but with all the other problems which make Thailand dangerous they are pretty small fish by comparison.

[Colabamumbai]

Thanks again, look forward to your weekly posts. 

[lvr181]

"Use technology don't let technology use you." I contend it's still true to this day.

 

A by-line of mine from my own website (of many years ago) where I used to give IT advice and some lessons.

 

My earliest computer toy was a Sinclair ZX81 (early 1980s I think) and I didn't have a clue how to work it properly. It was just "wow" technology to me.

 

Enjoyed your posting. ?

[Shiver]

Splendid.  As always.

I come from about 1 mile from Haydock race course, a small village called...Haydock.  Hello Thailand.  The last parting words of my mother "don't be coming back here with some dusky new woman".  So I didn't.  Was that wise advice? Dunno, never tried it.

Enjoy your day.  I'm showered/shaved and ready to go meet some friends and speak my native language for a few hours.  Ignore anything I write after this cut off point for the next 24 hours...it might not be pretty because I'm going to be taking out my relationship feelings on a perfectly innocent Leo.  Guess who's going to pay, and pay manifold... Gep tang Kaap!

 

 

[nabokov]

Delightful reading, and sometimes downright hilarious, with nuggets of deep insight relating to our technology-besotted condition nowadays .  .  . are we descending into a state of mass stupor with all the information floating around?  I believe I read a while back that a certain female novelist had resolved to commit herself to daily study of algebra just to keep herself focused and sharp.  I imagine she has by now graduated to quadratic equations.  Her zen-like meditations on the beautiful abstractions of math cannot have hurt her literary work.  The rest of us, thanks to Google, Apple and those guys, are just getting dumber, I suspect. (The banner article of an issue of The Atlantic a few years ago said as much, so it has been officially confirmed!)  But wait . . . maybe those glazed-over looks one sees are merely a consequence of too much weed, the smart phones have nothing to do with it, n'est-ce pas? 

 

Thanks for the essay.

[Stargeezr]

Years ago I was in Hua Hin and while eating at a market style restaurant I noticed that

everyone was taking and have a great time.  Last year I noticed that at least a third of

the people were busy texing on their cell phones, and only the geezers like me were

chatting and not busy doing something with their phones.  What a world we live in,

where taking selfies are killing or injuring a lot of people, who some say that it is it is just the Darwin effect.

 that is working.    I am only smart enough on computer to type, and look at different things, and I only trust my relative to be my IT tech, and not the guy from Munbai that claims my computer needs his help and needs me to let him on it so he can clean it out.           Good article again this week Rooster, Thanks.