The week that was in Thailand news: Why Thais couldn’t possibly lose Face!

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Why Thais couldn’t possibly lose Face!

 

 

Rooster grew up in a school where us naughty boys used to have fun hurling insults at the “abnormal geeks” going home after attending the school’s fledgling Computer Club.

How dare they be so square, we thought.

Of course, many club members went on to untold riches in IT while the rest of us who pooh-poohed the idea of computers remain abjectly poor to this day, still trying to understand the vagaries of the modern era we so foolishly ignored.

I was similarly quite late in getting a Facebook account – around 2010 – and then after a scant perusal of its usages promptly ignored it for about five more years.

Now I seem to be on it several hours a day and am seriously worried that it has replaced my more traditional ‘hand held’ addictions of the past!

Certainly in a week of news dominated by the Thai government’s threat to somehow withdraw access to Facebook– that the locals refer to simply as “Face” – it got me thinking about all the time many of us seem to spend on Mr Zuckerberg’s contribution to humanity.

What seemed to me at first as a silly place to post banal pictures of your dinner and humdrum activities has now become a giant that is nothing short of a kind of parallel universe for many people.

We get our news and information on Facebook – in fact about 60% of stories on a site like Thaivisa originate there through videos or posts of one kind or another.

And when you consider the huge amount of Thai people doing business to save money through Facebook rather than on conventional websites it is hardly surprising that the government backed down from any action.

If indeed they meant to in the first place. The Thais couldn’t possibly be made to lose Face!

No, it was just saber rattling from the men in uniform as they accepted that Facebook – and its relationship with the Thai people - is essentially far more powerful than them!

So now they are just content with getting some mischievous links taken down that, inevitably, refer to persons of higher rank than the military.

Happy that Face was now under little threat, the world of Thai news settled back into its usual haphazard and amusing stride though the darker forces were once more to the fore.

It emerged at a school that the discredited habit of “hazing” had now moved from universities into the kindergarten – not actually such a vast jump when, like Rooster, you have met so many graduates.

A six year old boy was dropped on his head by older pupils as part of a “welcome back to class” ritual.

The poor boy had a bump on the head “the size of a kaffir lime” referring to the essential ingredient of many a Thai dish and, incidentally, one that men often urinate on in their occasionally aromatic urinals.

Thai news was desperate to get any topical stories about the start of the new term even dragging up the old hot chestnut from a UNESCO report of years ago that Thai children spend longer than any others in the world in class.

The “quality vs quantity” question that Thai Rath posed was about the most rhetorical question of the year especially for the ever present critics of what many see as an oxymoron, Thai education.

It has become almost de rigueur to knock it but I was glad – on Facebook – to find myself posting a favorable comment about my daughter’s excellent Thai school with its dedicated Thai and expatriate staff.

As a teacher and administrator with decades of experience I know what to look for and besides, a child who bounds home smiling saying she loves her school kind of seals the deal.

The start of term was less pleasant for a teacher in Chainat on her way home from her P6 class. Lying in wait under some coconut trees was a man from her past who shot her twice in the back of the head.

Thankfully she survived and equally thankfully when the man who shot her turned the gun on himself, he didn’t.

Shocking footage – well I guess it would be shocking if we were not getting so inured to it - emerged from Chantaburi where another jilted lover marched into a leasing office and emptied his magazine into a young woman at her desk.

He was soon in the jailhouse for the jealous after quick police work solved the crime.

These incidents had many forum posters commenting on “crime wave Thailand” as though it was some new epidemic.

It’s nothing new – it’s just more, how can I put it, in your Face.

Rooster learnt the written Thai language in the early 1980s by poring over the grisly crime-ridden pages of magazines such as “191” and “Atchayagam”. The stories of a smiling, gun happy people mowing down their bosses, lovers and neighbors didn’t put me off Thailand but I thought it best to take care.

It’s now my home but the self-preservation instinct remains. And the awareness that very little has changed regarding crime in Thailand except that with an increasingly pervasive news media one would have to be a hermit in a jungle temple retreat to avoid it.

Either that or just not a Facebook user.

Later in the week the altogether more mundane aspects of life in Thailand took center stage. One of these was the subject of television and the inexorable return to True being a true monopoly once again.

Following the collapse of CTH last year we saw the arrests of two Brits and a Thai who were responsible for bringing 365 Sport and Thai Expat TV to our screens. Seemingly behind the arrests was the all-powerful reach of the English Premier League.

Being an addict of the greatest football show on earth I am afraid to say I am now back in the fold of being a lackey to True Corporation and what passes for what they amusingly refer to as “customer service”.

Also TV related, top Thai presented Woody found himself in hot water for promoting something called Korea King. Convinced here was a tale of some long lost Monarch of Seoul I clicked on the story to discover it was about frying pans.

Apparently people believed they were getting a great deal when Woody said the pans were reduced from 18,000 baht to a snip at just 15,000!

The Consumer Protection Board – surely one of the most underworked agencies in Thailand as few would believe they could really exist let alone do anything – swung into action to say Korea Kings were worth just 500 baht.

Woody won’t mind the fire after the frying pan though it did make me think about the Thai proverb equivalent – running away from a tiger into a crocodile – and surmising whether the aforesaid CPB would actually have any teeth.

This week’s Midweek Rant on the forum spoke about the conflict of compromise and accountability and though the sentiments were valid little is likely to change in Thailand. I was left looking abroad at the UK following the death of moors’ murderer Ian Brady.

Was justice really served in that case with 500 million baht being spent on his 51 year stint inside various mental institutions and still no resolution forthcoming for the anguished parents of the boy victim still buried somewhere on the moors.

It really sets the lie to people on Thaivisa who post continually about the injustice of Thailand while pointing at the paragons of justice and fair play that, in their eyes at least, exist back from whence they came.

One area where Thailand has made great strides is in the care for people with HIV. It was interesting to read that new cases of the virus had now fallen to less than 10,000 a year with hopes that this still larger than acceptable figure could be reduced to 1,000 by 2030.

Minister Mechai Viravaidya – whose first name became synonymous with condoms in the 1980s – began the good work and many Thai agencies have worked hard to reduce stigma and promote the anti-retroviral drugs that now give many of those with HIV close to normal lifespans.

It is a far cry from the doom and gloom of little more than 20 years again but we could have done without the absurd picture that went with the story of some drug addict covered in tattoos writhing desperately on the floor.

With likely between one and two per cent of the adult Thai population having the virus the real person with HIV may well be the man standing next to you in the bus queue or the female clerk in the bank.

Such people leading ordinary but extraordinary lives could do without news organizations reinforcing old stereotypical prejudices.

So to this week’s Rooster awards. The “They Should Really Have Seem That Coming” award goes to the fortune teller run over while sleeping on the sidewalk in Phrae.

Sad indeed and it also led to my favorite forum comment from “phantomfiddler” who said: “My mum was a medium, it even said so at the back of her winter woolies”.

Also causing much comment and some merriment was the story of the cop in a red plate Mercedes-Benz who drove off without paying his 920 baht petrol bill at a PTT station. He wins my award for being “Once a Cop, Always a Cop”.

Finally, permit me to return to the reason why many Thais and expatriates in the kingdom will die a little death this evening, albeit temporarily -  the final day of the English Premier League season is tonight.

It is with some foreboding as I contemplate having to talk to the missus at weekends in the close season, however, it was a story on the BBC that caught my eye.

It spoke of the possibility of retrospective “diving bans” being introduced for footballers who “simulate” fouls to con referees.

It took a while to register as after decades in Bangkok thinking about the lack of action on the road carnage, my Thai-oriented brain failed to click into first gear.

Were they really considering driving bans in the Premier League?

 

Rooster

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-05-21

[smotherb]

You need an executive summary

[docshock13]

Can't lose face and FACEBOOK!

[Marvo]

Love the style of prose Rooster, as always.
Is that the lilt in which you will be talking to your missus during the PL off season?
Poor girl. LOL!

[Ombra]

If you have been in Thailand since the early eighties, you should certainly know one Khun Meechai from another.

[Jane Dough]

28 minutes ago, Ombra said:

If you have been in Thailand since the early eighties, you should certainly know one Khun Meechai from another.

Indeed that should be Mechai Viravaidya, a great character and now helping to run an imaginative school in  the north east I believe. I had the pleasure of meeting him once. 

[jaltsc]

Brevity is not your strong point. Lost interest after the second paragraph.

 

Perhaps you might want to present an outline.

1. Problem and examples.

2. Effects of Problem

3. Reasons for Those Effects.

4. Solution(s).

Edited May 21, 2017 by jaltsc

[Ombra]

13 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

Indeed that should be Mechai Viravaidya, a great character and now helping to run an imaginative school in  the north east I believe. I had the pleasure of meeting him once. 

Khun Mechai is a man Thailand can be proud of. It is a pity that we don't see and hear more of him these days.

[AjarnMartin]

1 hour ago, smotherb said:

You need an executive summary

Executive Summary, my hat! I always find Rooster59's weekly digest an enjoyable read which is well written, humorous and insightful. It also acts as a brilliant executive summary because it negates the necessity to read all the other drivel which is made available for and by the poorly read and generally illiterate audience.

 

As an ex-hotmetal, print compositor (a WHAT???) one can forgive the odd literal... 'SEEM THAT COMING' but I question the spelling of 'sabre' without being aware of an alternative, 'saber' spelling.

 

Keep them coming, Rooster59... ?

[smotherb]

11 minutes ago, AjarnMartin said:

Executive Summary, my hat! I always find Rooster59's weekly digest an enjoyable read which is well written, humorous and insightful. It also acts as a brilliant executive summary because it negates the necessity to read all the other drivel which is made available for and by the poorly read and generally illiterate audience.

 

As an ex-hotmetal, print compositor (a WHAT???) one can forgive the odd literal... 'SEEM THAT COMING' but I question the spelling of 'sabre' without being aware of an alternative, 'saber' spelling.

 

Keep them coming, Rooster59... ?

well, ajarn, although I appreciate your opinion; you will have to forgive me if I am not as impressed as you.

[BaiLao]

4 hours ago, smotherb said:

executive summary

Executive summary? Twaddle. Summary execution, more like it - if one can't enjoy old Rooster59...

[crystal sauce]

Let them lose face till they get used to it 

[YetAnother]

'face' and mai pen rai' will keep thailand in the dark ages

[sambum]

 “My mum was a medium, it even said so at the back of her winter woolies”.

 

Love it!

[smotherb]

4 hours ago, BaiLao said:

Executive summary? Twaddle. Summary execution, more like it - if one can't enjoy old Rooster59...

wow, what a novel creature you are, you advocate the execution of someone who disagrees with you

[Catkiwi]

8 hours ago, jaltsc said:

Brevity is not your strong point. Lost interest after the second paragraph.

 

Perhaps you might want to present an outline.

1. Problem and examples.

2. Effects of Problem

3. Reasons for Those Effects.

4. Solution(s).

Memory retention of a gold fish perhaps? Leave poor ol' Rooster alone. He is one of the few posters worth reading among many banal contributers. Perhaps you should have a go at your own outline and give us something entertaining. Another teacher I suspect ?

[lvr181]

Interesting post  And now my two bobs worth;

 

"It has become almost de rigueur to knock it but I was glad – on Facebook – to find myself posting a favorable comment about my daughter’s excellent Thai school with its dedicated Thai and expatriate staff."

To win a battle does not win the war! The 'battles' need to be in the majority.

 

"It spoke of the possibility of retrospective “diving bans” being introduced for footballers who “simulate” fouls to con referees."
It is certainly not my chosen spectator sport but I am always bemused by those who proclaim it the 'beautiful game', despite the blatant cheating that goes on during play.

But then again is it any worse than the yanks claiming so and so a team won the World Baseball Series (when no one else but the yanks are involved)?

 

And your piece about Moors murderer, Brady does deserve comment. And I agree that it appears no substantial help (financially) given to the murdered persons families, just a sentence handed out to the criminal (deservedly so). Perhaps the idea that the convicted criminal makes some form of monetary restitution to the aggrieved family/s is a good idea. Maybe countries could adopt the best of both worlds? Upon conviction of a person who is given a substantial deterrent term of imprisonment (for others who may be thinking of carrying out criminal activities), can be reduced a little by the fact that they have paid substantial monetary compensation to the victims families. If they haven't then they can do the full term. And prison does not need to have the family comforts of home either. The 'rights' of the prisoner should be restricted to shelter, food and medicine only! No more molly coddling.

 

My italics.

[sambum]

8 hours ago, lvr181 said:

Interesting post  And now my two bobs worth;

 

"It has become almost de rigueur to knock it but I was glad – on Facebook – to find myself posting a favorable comment about my daughter’s excellent Thai school with its dedicated Thai and expatriate staff."

To win a battle does not win the war! The 'battles' need to be in the majority.

 

"It spoke of the possibility of retrospective “diving bans” being introduced for footballers who “simulate” fouls to con referees."
It is certainly not my chosen spectator sport but I am always bemused by those who proclaim it the 'beautiful game', despite the blatant cheating that goes on during play.

But then again is it any worse than the yanks claiming so and so a team won the World Baseball Series (when no one else but the yanks are involved)?

 

And your piece about Moors murderer, Brady does deserve comment. And I agree that it appears no substantial help (financially) given to the murdered persons families, just a sentence handed out to the criminal (deservedly so). Perhaps the idea that the convicted criminal makes some form of monetary restitution to the aggrieved family/s is a good idea. Maybe countries could adopt the best of both worlds? Upon conviction of a person who is given a substantial deterrent term of imprisonment (for others who may be thinking of carrying out criminal activities), can be reduced a little by the fact that they have paid substantial monetary compensation to the victims families. If they haven't then they can do the full term. And prison does not need to have the family comforts of home either. The 'rights' of the prisoner should be restricted to shelter, food and medicine only! No more molly coddling.

 

My italics.

 "can be reduced a little by the fact that they have paid substantial monetary compensation to the victims families."

 

Thought that they went one step further here by withholding punishment altogether providing enough money  has been paid over!

[lvr181]

51 minutes ago, sambum said:

 "can be reduced a little by the fact that they have paid substantial monetary compensation to the victims families."

 

Thought that they went one step further here by withholding punishment altogether providing enough money  has been paid over!

There still needs to be a deterrent effect in the sentencing. Money alone is not the answer and certainly does not hurt in anyway the rich.

[sambum]

25 minutes ago, lvr181 said:

There still needs to be a deterrent effect in the sentencing. Money alone is not the answer and certainly does not hurt in anyway the rich.

So halving the sentence if you plead guilty isn't a deterrent?

[lvr181]

17 hours ago, sambum said:

So halving the sentence if you plead guilty isn't a deterrent?

In Thailand, I don't think so. How many "long term" (and that is subjective) sentences are handed out? If you were given a 15 year term of imprisonment reduced to 10 provided you paid a substantial some of money to the injured or the deceased family, if you don't pay then you do the full 15 years. Whether you plead guilty or not! Even in Thai culture I am thinking (hoping) that it may have some deterrent effect.

[hawker9000]

On 5/21/2017 at 4:48 PM, crystal sauce said:

Let them lose face till they get used to it 

They've already lost far more than they realize.  A few FB pages won't even be a drop in the ocean.  But I guess a few submarines will fix all that, eh?

[Mark mark]

Nice Job Rooster, …  

 

Yes since you posted this one, the more recent Thai Visa Feed, about the "military-style training during a civil servant orientation course" ... Impressed and amused me a Lot !!! …. And I am looking forward to hearing from you on it in your next Week’s Post !!! …  The Cover Photo of the Young Woman, a Doctor or Nurse, Laughing, as she runs through the Fire and Smoke, with Percussion Devices going off, and well Real Like Military guy by the side of the road, …  and the Nice Young woman next to her also Laughing !!! ….  But with her fingers in her Ears !!! God Bless Thailand, the land, where they REALLY Know how to do things right !!! ...  Well Socially Important things any way, … ... Sometimes ...

 

…  Yes Diving in Socker, ... well Fooot Ball, is about the worst thing in the sport after then looking Unhinged, and jumping on top of, or Hugging each other, after Actually managing to score a Goal.

 

…  And yes, speaking more seriously, Young Man, Knocking, their Desired, or Lost Lovers !!! …  About one of the worst things in the world, ... after the Huge social Problem all over ... Un-Employment, for Every one !!! …   But in Particular for some times quite Unhinged, and stupid, … Ballsy Young Men, with nothing to do ... and I will not get in to any Sad very distant Opinion, about the Manchester Tragedy !!! And as HUGELY heart felt, Just Teenage Girls and Children !!! On a Night out !!! …  and a total Disaster as it was ...

 

… It WAS Nice seeing the Shik Taxi drivers taking all the stranded People Home, or to Hospital .... 

 

…. So well, Nice Job again Rooster ...  and On On, on that.

 

“Back from the Dead”  Mark, or sometimes Just Kram. (Backward Mark) …  (Or seen as such)

 

 

[Rhys]

...No shame in their game...

 

[sambum]

On 5/23/2017 at 11:22 AM, lvr181 said:

In Thailand, I don't think so. How many "long term" (and that is subjective) sentences are handed out? If you were given a 15 year term of imprisonment reduced to 10 provided you paid a substantial some of money to the injured or the deceased family, if you don't pay then you do the full 15 years. Whether you plead guilty or not! Even in Thai culture I am thinking (hoping) that it may have some deterrent effect.

Sorry,  I can't agree with you at all - what you are saying is that if you have enough money you can buy your way out of jail - which is exactly the way that it is already! The more money you have, the less chance of you doing time - prime example - the Red Bull heir fiasco.

Edited May 27, 2017 by sambum

[lvr181]

8 hours ago, sambum said:

Sorry,  I can't agree with you at all - what you are saying is that if you have enough money you can buy your way out of jail - which is exactly the way that it is already! The more money you have, the less chance of you doing time - prime example - the Red Bull heir fiasco.

I understand what you are saying but most western countries punish the offender (hopefully a deterrent sentence) but little is done to help the aggrieved. In Thailand it seems completely the other way around. I am suggesting using the best of both ways combined to obtain a better result. Perhaps even charge those who cause road deaths with manslaughter? If you killed someone with a knife or gun you could be facing murder/manslaughter charges in many western nations. Is using a motor vehicle as the "weapon" different?

[sambum]

6 hours ago, lvr181 said:

I understand what you are saying but most western countries punish the offender (hopefully a deterrent sentence) but little is done to help the aggrieved. In Thailand it seems completely the other way around. I am suggesting using the best of both ways combined to obtain a better result. Perhaps even charge those who cause road deaths with manslaughter? If you killed someone with a knife or gun you could be facing murder/manslaughter charges in many western nations. Is using a motor vehicle as the "weapon" different?

I agree with you fully re the manslaughter charges,  but "little is done to help the aggrieved. In Thailand it seems completely the other way around."

I don't  understand what you are saying - are you saying that in Thailand the aggrieved are treated better than in most Western countries? In which case you are contradicting yourself!

[sambum]

Just now, sambum said:

I agree with you fully re the manslaughter charges for those who cause road deaths,  but "little is done to help the aggrieved. In Thailand it seems completely the other way around."

I don't  understand what you are saying - are you saying that in Thailand the aggrieved are treated better than in most Western countries? In which case you are contradicting yourself!

 

[lvr181]

2 minutes ago, sambum said:

I agree with you fully re the manslaughter charges,  but "little is done to help the aggrieved. In Thailand it seems completely the other way around."

I don't  understand what you are saying - are you saying that in Thailand the aggrieved are treated better than in most Western countries? In which case you are contradicting yourself!

Tell me, how the victims/aggrieved are treated better in most Western countries? At least here the victims are quite often given money/paid to cover many if not all expenses? All too often in western countries the victims of crime are given far less help than the perpetrators, thanks to the "do gooders".

[sambum]

1 hour ago, lvr181 said:

Tell me, how the victims/aggrieved are treated better in most Western countries? At least here the victims are quite often given money/paid to cover many if not all expenses? All too often in western countries the victims of crime are given far less help than the perpetrators, thanks to the "do gooders".

Try Googling this link:-

 

"Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority - GOV.UK"

 

And very recently, just as one example:-

 

"How to apply for compensation if you were a victim of the terrorist attack in Manchester on 22 May 2017"

 

Edited May 28, 2017 by sambum