The shuttle between Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang
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46
USA Trump's Fitness Test Revival: Push-Ups and Pull-Ups Are Back
That’s funney!!I’ll bet the lard boy doesn’t get dressed without assistance let alone exercise! -
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Sick irony of Duke and Chulalongkorn in Bangkok?
Does anyone else find it to be sick irony that probably the top institutions in existence for the Thai language are in a city where you could never have the opportunity to use or become conversational at the language? You'd think they could build a Duke language school somewhere where Thai is spoken - a farming village perhaps? (I haven't found a good city yet, Pattaya, Ko Pha-ngan etc. were as heavily Americanized as Bangkok in my experience). Middlebury's very famous Summer Language Immersion Programs function entirely on the premise of not allowing anything but your target language for the length of the program. It DOES matter, it's not my own idea. Anyway, I think I'm qualified to at least comment on this. Twenty years ago when I attended a language school in China, every interaction everyday all day for the entire year was in Chinese no matter how poorly it went. I made a fool of myself many times, but there was no fall back. That's why - relatively speaking - everyone was amazing after only 3 months! What I mean by that is that, of course they were nowhere near the professional levels they might have gotten to years later, they had face enough situations to know how to navigate all of them and to get speakers to respond back in a way (perhaps simplified or slower) they could handle - to navigate the hospital, bank, university enrollment bureaucracy, anywhere really. The passing of years in Thailand, honestly, counts for nothing if your interactions in the language do not last *HOURS PER DAY*. A few words here and there don't add up to anything even over 12 months in aggregate. -
254
Winning
Winning, stopping the funding of my & other Americans tax dollars going toward what use to be a good cause before the party of Socialist/ Communist/ Terrorist supporters, and DEI woksters far Leftist propaganda , took it over. Ba Bye,see ya. Adios ! -
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Thai - Cambodia Conflict Tensions Flare as Thai-Cambodian Forces Grapple Over Temple
Let’s face it, if you can’t appreciate that the Thai media's reaction to the current Thai-Cambodian conflict has been in general nationalistic, sensationalist, and, in many corners, disturbingly uncritical , you are just a media patsy.. So here’s a look at the dynamics and what is revealed about the broader issues surrounding media literacy and public gullibility in Thailand – including the expats…… Anyone reading or watching the media in the last few days must have noticed a tsunami of jingoism over journalism. The coverage overwhelmingly portrays Thailand as the righteous victim defending its sovereignty, with Cambodia as the unmitigated aggressor, when in reality the factual situation is far more nuanced, ambiguous or bilateral. Always in these situations the main media is state-influenced to say the least, for a start the military owns most of the TV channels and there are many other state-owned outlets (e.g., Channel 5, Thai PBS, Royal Thai Army Radio) All these readily adopt an overtly patriotic tone, mirroring government or military positions, without scrutiny or balance. There's little effort to explore Cambodian motives, context, or grievances or look at the history of international agreements in Cambodia’s favour— the narrative is reduced to "they're threatening us" with near-zero nuance. Successive Thi governments have been able to take advantage of the nation’s public gullibility and naïve trust in authority, which is still deeply embedded in the old Sakdina caste system. The result is a blind faith in military and monarchy-linked voices. There is an almost obsessive compulsion not to disrupt “harmony” – a powerful way of quelling any criticism. Decades of top-down messaging have fostered a public that often equates criticism of military actions with disloyalty or disruptive. So often Thai people instinctively side with official narratives, assuming they must be protecting the nation's harmony and therefore its interests. Education has played a major part in all this; there is no media education at all - Thai audiences, especially outside urban centres, aren’t taught to critically evaluate news sources. This leaves them vulnerable to manipulation and misrepresentation. This also can be seen in a lot of the comments by expats on this site. Facebook and Line groups serve as echo chambers, reinforcing this nationalist fervour. “Fake news” and misinformation spreads rapidly, and then are responded to with equally apocryphal counter-narratives by Cambodia, A lot of the international and legal angles are dismissed or censored or banned by the Thai media Even on the streets of Thailand we have seen the demonization and dehumanization of Cambodia; even attacks on Cambodian people. Thai history is to blame too - most academic histories of Thailand are banned often under the draconian lase majeste laws Historical misrepresentation stands uncorrected for decades with old nationalist tropes such as the Preah Vihear temple dispute used to vilify Cambodia as duplicitous or inferior. Loaded language is everywhere Cambodians are referred to as “encroachers,” “invaders,” or “puppets of foreign influence” (with China sometimes hinted at) This is used to create an “us vs. them” siege mentality. It is common in many countries to blame “foreigners” or any readily identifiable group as the source of the problems – we’ve even had “Reds Under The BEDS” spy scares! There are also many potential ulterior motives for the current situation. This sort of thing often happens at times of domestic discontent or “unrest”. Conveniently, the media-fuelled border scare comes at a time of government instability. It’s a time of economic anxiety, corruption scandals, and unpopular leadership. Nationalism becomes a tool to unify the public and distract from internal criticism. Thailand seldom has room for dissent. Any Thai public figures or journalists who raise questions about the government’s handling of the conflict or urge restraint are branded as unpatriotic or “Cambodian sympathizers.” What this all says about Thai Society is that it reveals the national propensity for gullibility and naivety. Their widespread acceptance of simplistic, emotional narratives shows how vulnerable parts of Thai society can be to state-led narratives and shallow nationalism. For many years now the control of information has remained strong. Despite internet access, much of the population still consumes heavily filtered or biased content. (nearly 200.000 web sites are blocked by the Thai government – they even considered blocking Facebook) Alternative viewpoints are not welcome especially English Language ones from independent Cambodian media, they rarely reach a mass audience. Thailand has a dire need for critical literacy: (as does this site) The crisis exposes the urgent need for independent journalism, civic education, and platforms that foster critical thinking. To sum up, the Thai media’s nationalistic coverage of the Cambodian conflict is not just biased reporting, it’s a more, it’s a window into how state-aligned narratives are absorbed, internalized, and echoed by a population raised on loyalty, not inquiry. It’s a case study in how media, when weaponized, can obscure the truth, manipulate emotions, and make the public complicit in sustaining conflict , and they don’t even realise it! -
114
LONDON - Then and Now
In America at that time the stewardesses were young, sexy and wore mini skirts. Now, grumpy old bags with Union seniority, especially on the long hauls. In fairness, the passengers have descended into pajama wearing Greyhound bus clientele.- 1
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