The week that was in Thailand news: Problems that are more than just potholes.

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Problems that are more than just potholes.

 

 

On the face of it when the model called Palmy decided to take a bath in a north western Thai road full of deep potholes it just looked like a quirky Thai story designed to get a bit of action from sluggish road maintenance crews. And the BBC reported it as such – along with a host of other copy-cat attempts to get local authorities to pull their fingers out.

But as the matter reached its denouement this week it is worthwhile pointing out the myriad other tidbits that make a seemingly straightforward story seem a whole lot more interesting – especially for those craving a window into Thai culture and thinking.

Sure the road now looks spick and span and the head honcho turned up for his picture to be taken – no surprise there. The authority were indeed shamed into action.

But there lies the rub for while more and more people go online to get something done there remains an undercurrent that doing that may land you in really hot water – not just the tepid, muddy mess that Palmy was seen bathing in.

Her mum said that her daughter – or was it her son, because Palmy was revealed as a lady boy – had brought the local authority into disrepute by her actions. Here we might infer two things at the very least – mum and the civil servants had lost face and “khun mae” is clearly none too happy with the activities of her offspring, sexual or otherwise.

Let’s forget the telling silence of several Thaivisa posters who went online when the story broke wanting “to give Palmy one”. Maybe they still would regardless of her revealed sexual status.

So why had the civil servants lost face? Was it just the media coverage? Er, no.

Mum said that the prime minister had got involved and criticized the authorities. Of course it is well known that some unscrupulous locals in power enjoy nice holidays rather than waste it on road repairs. Some might even go to Hawaii for a vat of vino, for all I know.

Even tourism, so the story goes, was affected by the negative impact of Thailand being paraded in this murky pothole light, though Rooster thought it was more positive really!

So there we have it: a potholed road in a country village leads to the prime minister, local politics, Thai cultural face, tourism and a smattering of unconventional sex.

Ponder that the next time you drive down a bumpy road thinking it leads to nowhere!

Palmy and the potholes was just one of many stories that serve to remind us that in Thailand much lurks behind the façade of news headlines. Another was the continuing trouble caused by claims that two Hmong hill tribe girls stole a British tourist’s watch. It has all been disproved now but the family are furious and want their pound of flesh. But how to get it?

The tourist has fled Doi Suthep and the police can do no more even if they did much in the first place. Finally the new British ambassador made a visit to Chaing Mai seemingly as a courtesy call but he also found time for an awfully British “sorry about that my dear chaps” waffle of an apology.

Brain Davidson, again, bangs on about knowing the local culture – he has after all been here since September – and intimates he wants to disseminate this in-depth knowledge to the million Brits that come to Thailand each year. In a story about his visit up north he expressed a “willingness to promote understanding of the country’s culture and traditions”.

Ok then, Mr Davidson, why not get your wallet out and visit the kids who were wronged by your countrywoman and pay some compo? Now that would really suggest you had got your diplomatic handle on a few rudiments of the culture.

Only cash cuts it here Mr Ambassador – I thought you might know that as you prepare to sell the embassy and its land for 50 billion baht profit.

Apologies as ‘Rooster rarely rants’ but I feel sorry for the Hmong community along with so many others on the fringes and even within Thai society itself who have so little recourse to justice for their problems. They deserve more than apologies.

Meanwhile, the body in the freezer story rolled on though posts on the subject got less and less as less and less was being revealed by police. Commissioner Sanit says it will all come out in the wash soon. Rooster is the antithesis of a conspiracy theorist but the way they are carrying on I wouldn’t be surprised that the guys languishing in Prakhanong nick really are CIA operatives as some posters claimed this week.

They certainly do appear bungling enough to hold down that job.

Top crime story of the week was the serial killer dubbed the “Pathum Slasher” on Thaivisa after three homeless rubbish collectors were found stabbed and bound. The assailant was thought to be using a bicycle to get about so the thousands of pedestrian plod were finding it a bit hard to keep up.

Rangsit residents were staying indoors in terror so hopefully that means less deaths on the roads in accidents. However, on Saturday a man was taken into custody - and it will be interesting to see if he is a Thai or a foreigner as claimed earlier.

Getting about on bicycle in the capital was probably one of the better means of transport this week as Bangkok ground to a halt with flooding and traffic gridlock.

I particularly enjoyed the “outrage” online as Thais screamed about the noodle vendor seen washing the dishes in the floodwater. While even more humorous in nature was the story of the female driver who ordered a pizza and had it delivered to her car stuck in the “rot tit”.

Well done to The Pizza Company staff who, according to the story, didn’t bat an eyelid when the order came through just enquiring casually as to where she was!

Clearly a company that understands the true crisis that is a Thai unable to get food!

The rains also made it a bad week for Ferrari owners – a black one was pictured wallowing in the Ngam Wong Wan waters while a red one slithered off a wet road in Phuket and hit a tree.

I suppose if you can afford one you can afford to repair it but I am sure I was not the only one with a schadenfreudian snigger on my jealous chops.

One of the most clicked on stories of the week concerned a tale that riled many in the Thaivisa community who think the immigration slogan of “Good Guys in Bad Guys out” should just be “Everybody out!”

The latest reports were that a handful Indians and one Canadian were found to be staying in the wrong address. That was for the whole of Chonburi for a whole month – hardly a crackdown.

If parts of the obviously Caucasian foreign community really think there is some vendetta against them they may have been heartened by the police raid in Nana on Friday. For it was conducted only in Soi 3 on the “darker” side of the main road across from the untouched and “paler” Soi 4. The Thai press said that only “dark skinned” tourists were targeted on this occasion.

And so to this week’s “Rooster Awards” – Best Thai Spin of the week was put on the story of the Chinese tourist caught up in a deadly box jellyfish near Samet. Aside from the fact that the jelly was blamed for being an Aussie, the local tourism chief added that it had got lost and then praised his clinic’s staff for the training he had provided for them in dealing with stings.

A “Guest You’d Rather Not Have at a Party” award went to the local politician’s “friend” who had one too many at a “ngaan sop” – “party dead” as an old girlfriend of mine once said.

The man took out his gun at the funeral and tried to send a cop up the chimney too before doing the obligatory fleeing. And if none of that is remotely surprising neither is the fact this occurred in Nakorn Sri Thammarat where gun crime seems as likely as getting pesticides on your fruit and veg – 56% if the figures announced this week are to be believed!

Best headline of the week and best picture undoubtedly went to the “Half Full Monty Python” that was shown in the process of swallowing a dog. Admittedly it was the neighbor’s rather than a mangy soi dog specimen but plenty of Thaivisa posters fed up with dogs in the kingdom saw little difference as the five meter long monster gobbled the lady’s pet.

Finally perhaps the tragedy of the week was how little was made within the country of the memory of the dozens of students gunned down at Thammasat University forty years ago this week. Called a massacre by foreign media the name used in Thailand to refer to it is merely “haetgarn hok tulaa” – the October 6th incident. A Hong Kong democracy activist who came to talk at a commemorative event was sent back home after being declared “persona non grata”.

Seeing a former Thammasat student, now an aging Thai man, in tears on a BBC video as he recounted the horror of that day as if it were yesterday, made me stop to think.

Perhaps Thailand’s problems remain more than just potholes.

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-10-09

[trogers]

The problem is Integrity, or the lack of such...

 

And accepting handouts from ALL candidates would only place a huge hurdle to the non self-serving candidates, thus perpetuating greedy people into positions of power.

 

When political masters do it, why not civil servants.

 

And the cancer spreads throughout the body.

[williamgeorgeallen]

your best round up yet. great read thanks.

[nongsangcity]

smashing read as always...