The week that was in Thailand news: Out with the old, in with the old

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Out with the old, in with the old

 

 

New Year is supposed to be a time for looking forward with optimism to the future. But after a week of news on Thaivisa that fell into the “same old same old” category it was hard to be anything but pessimistic.

Fatal accidents aplenty, horrific murder, abuse and assault of children by parents and teachers and the shooting of a policeman all vied for our undivided attention as 2016 came to a close. Thank goodness that amid all the mayhem there was still plenty of the quirky and humorous to remind us why Thailand is still our home and why Rooster has always said he will go up in smoke in the kingdom.

Just so long as it isn’t quite yet.

To wit, I shall be staying off those roads, avoiding drunks where possible and saying yes ma’am, no ma’am three bags full ma’am to the missus for the foreseeable future. I know it makes sense.

Two school assaults were big news this week. After a year in which many teachers seem to have forgotten that corporal punishment is meant to have been outlawed, a female teacher in Pathum Thani meted out a disgusting 99 whacks to a seven year old for leaving class unannounced. Credit to the mum who turned down 50K to keep quiet but no credit again to the authorities who dithered as per usual.

Then in Krabi another “khun khru” seemingly auditioning for the part of Eva Braun in the school play mercilessly assaulted another primary child for the heinous crime of being unable to divide. Even more sickening in this case was the groveling of the parents in accepting that the teacher was somehow within her rights even if a bit OTT. These apologies for parents are part of the problem and the sooner they start saying enough is enough the better.

Rooster, a 30 year veteran of the class who maintained order with a steely look and an occasional snarling beak, is appalled by what is still happening in Thai schools up and down the country and if I hear another forum poster who says a good whacking never did them any harm I shall go and crow outside their house at 4am for a month to see if you like it.

But it was not just teachers – fathers and step-fathers were well to the fore too. One “phor liang” sickened the forum after pictures of his bites on the body of his new wife’s little kid were shown online while another so called dad took a knife to his actual daughter after he was angry that his wife had disappeared with their younger child.

Not content with just murder the man lived up to his “oxygen thief” moniker by cleaning her up and redressing her for mum to find when she came visiting later in the day. Rooster was obliged to translate this story into English from the Thai press after putting his own daughter to bed……..

All I can say is that violence against children and women in Thai society is endemic. All people here need to take a long hard look as to why this is so, stop hiding behind a veneer of pleasantness and work to put an end to it. Parents need to set a better example, teachers need to be accountable and the police need to enforce the law. Just do it.

At least one mother set an example in Pattalung – she dived across her son who was facing an assassin’s shotgun and took the bullet instead, dying in her son’s undoubtedly grateful arms. But what set of circumstances led to such appalling violence and the need for such maternal heroism? We were not privy to that.

Another who set a good example was the truck driver who got down from his cab to get a drunk motorcyclist to stop riding and sleep off his boozy session. There was no “mai pen rai” in his controlled reasoning with the stupefied young rider. Some locals finally led him off and parked his bike after the truck driver had had his say. This was public spirited and eminently sensible and gives us hope for the future if Thais will only speak up in this way.

In similar vein was the bus driver who protested to his passengers and his company that he was being asked to do too many trips despite being overtired. Trouble was, rather than refuse to leave Bangkok in the first place he just dumped his passengers by the side of the road and went off to snooze presumably.

Still, as many forum posters pointed out, at least his actions may well have raised a smidgeon of awareness and maybe another appalling accident was avoided.

Fortunately there were more than enough quirky stories to make up for the miserable ending to 2016. Top of the list and certainly in the category of “you can’t make this stuff up” was Constantin the Russian tourist who decided to blow up an ATM in Hua Hin. Armed with some gas canisters and some tubing the Ruskie chose a quiet spot to make his withdrawal before he was disturbed by a member of the public presumably there to take money out utilizing the more acceptable ‘punching numbers in’ method.

Constantin fled but was rounded up by plod at Swampy virtually on the steps of his Aeroflot flight. He was taken back for a reenactment of sorts with more than a few officers struggling to keep a straight face. I wonder if the judge will be similarly amused.

Hopefully we shall find out as I would like to see more reports of sentencing from the Thai press. We did, however, have word that the two young people who set fire to a love rival at a bus stop in 2014 got a death sentence commuted to life this week. That was a start.

Wearing a bit thin this week was Harold. No, I’m not talking about his balding bonce but his Kardashian style caper with his ex-porn missus Nong Nat. Latest “news” was that US born Harold seems to have failed to consummate the marriage – in many countries this is grounds for divorce though the Thais see not pressing the ATM regularly as much worse. Harold could never be charged with that.

Similarly soap opera in style was the Woody interview online with soapy massage tycoon turned politician turned ex con Chuwit. Members of the public were invited to ask questions and no one who has lived in Thailand five minutes would have been surprised that Chuwit was promptly asked, if you’ll excuse my French, if he had been pleasured by “Somchai” during his eleven month sojourn in stir.

No, he said, he hadn’t had that particular pleasure though he had managed to “help himself” and “pull the strings of the kite” with “all five on his hand”. I wish I knew what the hell he was going on about……

And so to this week’s final awards of 2016 as we hopefully welcome a bumper year of Darwinian delights in 2017.  My “Man of the Year Award” goes to metro police chief Sanit Mahathavorn who ended the year with yet another timely and brilliant initiative.

This time Sanit – whose previous efforts this year included making jolly hand gestures to subdue hardened crims – was advocating giving away 300 grams of rice to every motorist in the capital who stayed within the white lines or every motorcyclist who stayed off the sidewalk with a helmet on.

Methinks there will be as much unhanded out rice come the end of New Year as Yingluck managed to have stored up throughout the year.

The story also led to the “Best Forum Comment” of the week that went to “patOngo” once again for:

“An interesting twist….police bribing the public to obey the law. Is there no end to their ingenuity? I am curious as to how much rice it might take to extract the rogue monk from Wat Dhammakaya”.

On the subject of whom His Embezzliness remains ensconced despite the continued saber-rattling of the rozzers who ended 2016 as toothless in
the matter as one of those mangy tigers released from another temple earlier in the year.

The “Awfully Sorry about That” award goes to Mark Zuckerberg who kindly got his Facebook pals to make sure we were all safe from a bomb in Bangkok that never happened. As if taking a leaf out of the Thai disaster prevention manual, all was denied.

Fair enough – you have got to be barking if you think anything on Facebook has any veracity whatsoever.

And the “Thanks but No Thanks” award goes to the kind folks down in Pattaya who are suggesting that we take advantage of a free trip to Hua Hin while they are “testing” the ‘Royal 1’ ferry across the gulf.

Frankly, Rooster doesn’t mind being a guinea pig once in a while but he draws the line at being a bloody lemming.

Finally two stories in the “mysterious goings on category” tweaked my Thai antennae this week reminding me again of the gulf – not a stretch of water this time but the wide expanse that separates many Westerners from the Thai mentaility when it comes to ghosts and spirits. In Isaan the locals are convinced that a spot near the railway tracks is some kind of “Buriram Triangle” after people keep getting knocked down by trains.

The fact that the victims have Lao Khao on their breath is irrelevant of course.

While following the death of a man in a short time hotel in Pak Kret a worker at the facility was convinced that the spirit of the deceased appeared to him in a dream and tapped him on the leg getting him to wake up and go to check on his corpse in Room 309. Maybe the police were more skeptical than usual about this kind of story.

For rather than call the boy “A” or “B” they referred to him as “Dodo”.

Happy New Year.

Rooster.   

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-12-31

[tigermoth]

Good one Rooster. You omitted to mention that Thailand also holds a world record for the number of foreigners falling off balconies, all suicide of course.

[williamgeorgeallen]

need to be putting a bit more of a positive spin on things or you wont make the single gateway cut.

[aslimversgwm]

Your usual grand mix of the tragic and humorous.

After having spent Christmas Eve attending the emergency ward of my local hospital for - well lets just say a common problem for gentlemen of a certain age! - And its continuing saga, I needed cheering up!

Just to add: how marvelous the doctors, nurses and all staff are in Thai hospitals - well at least the ones I've visited in and around CM - and there's been a few. I count my lucky stars my 'issues' didn't start in Cambodia where I'd only just got back from 2 days earlier!

 

[The Dark Lord]

An excellent and uplifting article for which due praise is given however I do feel a tad aggrieved about the caning issue. Caring at my (UK Public School) was a regular event for most of us. At the time, not too well received by the recipients but as one gets older it seems to get the same "attention" you have to first locate an establishment that caters for such activities then pay for it dammmut!

 

life, sometimes is so unjust...............

[Wilsonandson]

Pol Lt Gen Sanit Mahathavorn

Man of the Year 2017

[Wilsonandson]

Chuwit Man of the Year 2017