When I’m back in the U.S. the only thing I look forward to seeing when I watch the Superbowl is the ads, but in Thailand the station carrying it live (on monday morning ) strips out the ads. For some people like my Dad that is a dream come true, but for me I miss the best parts – so thank you Youtube for having all the ads posted for me (but with no Superbowl to have to sit through). And the above ad that appeared during the game (congrats Saints!) is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time (maybe because I see a little of myself in it).
No, no need for a crib yet – if that is what you were thinking – but we are working on it.
Thailand beats the U.S. once again to the new year – by 12 hours and 543 years. Technically their new new year is in April with the Song Kran Festival – but all the calendars start in the western January (also a different name).
Not saying if this is how it is in 2552, but right now I am in 2009 U.S.A. on a road trip and I keep telling myself ”Stay on the right. Stay on the right….”
Really good interview today in The Nation with professor of law Stephen Young who came to Thailand in 1961 with his father the American Ambassador, studying at the same school I went to – the International School Bangkok- and later volunteered in the Vietnam War where he met his wife and helped with the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees after the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975 (the year after my family left Thailand).
Much of the interview is about his perspective on the recent Red Shirt / Yellow Shirt divide, how it is covered in the international press and his very negative opinion of the deposed Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
I have a feeling that there’s something special to us, to our family, my father, my mother, or myself, my brother, my sister about Thailand. We care about Thailand. My dad was close to His Majesty, close to [ex-PM Field Marshal] Sarit [Thanarat], and in 1961 there was this [big] gap between the Bangkok elite and the rural poor, a real gap. So, today, 2009, when I hear the red shirts say there’s a gap between Bangkok and ban nok [upcountry], I think it’s ridiculous. Today, there’s a gap, but in 1961 it was much bigger…
…I just went back to Ban Chiang. When I went there 43 years ago, there was no electricity, no flush toilet, and if you needed hot water, you had to boil it. Chicken was too expensive. You had to eat little fish from the pond. Today there’s electricity, flush toilets, hot water and ATM machines. Most of the houses have Internet…
…Thaksin has divided the Thai people and this is sad. The Thai people should not be so divided and angry. Even my family friends, the family is divided. Some of the brothers and sisters are yellow, and some are red. And around the dinner table, they argue and get angry. So I think … sabai … where did it go?…
…Rural people in their communities have always had their patrons. They can always have some influence in this group and that group. I have my view, my patron. I look up to you, you take care of me. You are at the provincial level and you reach the Bangkok level, so I can get it to the Bangkok level only through you. This has been true for a long time”
I got to see this first hand a few years ago when I was in L.A. and now it is back – it was one of the more awesome sites to see from the air as my plane ascended from Burbank Airport – it looked like volcanoes had blown all across Southern California. And the air below in the Simi Valley where I had been was thick with smoke – well beyond any polluted day in Bangkok. To my friends and family in L.A. and to the Firefighters working below those clouds, stay safe and good luck, may the winds die and the rains return.
From the AP story on a “novel trial” beginning tomorrow in Los Angeles:
” The trial is the first in which entertainment industry figures are charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a federal statute prohibiting corrupt payments to foreign officials for business purposes.
Prosecutors contend (Gerald and Patricia Green) paid Juthamas Siriwan, the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, about $1.8 million to help secure the Bangkok International Film Festival and tourism-related deals, beginning in 2002. The payments, often disguised as sales commissions, were transferred into accounts of Juthamas’ daughter and a friend or paid in cash to Juthamas directly, according to court documents.”
But why are they getting prosecuted and not Sirawan? Strange story, especially from over here where payments and gifts are as everyday as the monsoon rain.
A fanciful proposal of what a global currency would look like - from the Ophiram Foundation of Hong Kong that can be found on the website of the Single Global Currency Association (www.singleglobalcurrency.org).
A good article this week in Bloomberg.com on a push by Asian countries to replace the American Dollar and Euro with a global currency.
We need a currency that is stable by volume and value so that world trade and investment can be more stable,” Bank Indonesia Governor Boediono told reporters in Jakarta today. “Trade transactions using one currency that’s dependent on the condition of a single country’s economy is dangerous.”
Traveling throughout Asia, I am continually reminded how fortunate I am to be holding American currency – in many of the poorer countries the Dollar is as accepted as the local currency. It has been this way since the end of the Second World War but perhaps now this dominance of the Dollar is coming to an end. Even though this could be bad news for Americans like me who travel and live in Asia, I think it is ultimately a good thing for both the U.S. and Asia to not be so intertwined. I also think that it will be a long time before the above pictured currency is a reality – more likely is an Asian Euro, or “Asio” and that is not even close to happening soon either.
Great article today in the New York Times on how Thailand and other Asian counties dealt with bad bankers during the economic crisis of 1997:
The argument that A.I.G.’s traders are the people that we must depend on to save the United States economy is as weak and self-serving as it was in Thailand…
In Thailand, some argued that the preponderance of family-owned businesses — and the lack of clarity about precisely which family members were really in charge — meant that only bankers already working in big institutions like Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank could determine which borrowers were creditworthy.
The leaders of Thailand and South Korea did not listen to such arguments, and thank goodness…
Recovery from that crisis required Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand to close or consolidate banks. In all three countries, bankers protested, claiming that their connections with borrowers were critical to recovery….these reforms made all the difference. Banks became healthy and resumed lending within a few years after the crisis broke. The chaebols that survived are stronger than they were before the crisis. They are now withstanding the severe pressure of the global recession because they were forced to become better regulated, and more separate from banks.
The lesson of all this is that when insiders have broken a financial institution, the most direct remedy is to kick them out. Traders are hardly in short supply, and you don’t need to rely on the ones who made the toxic trades in the first place.”
At the Suphanahong Awards, the Thai "Oscars" Sunday night
In 2552 there is a long televised movie award show – the Suphanahong Awards that takes place on a Sunday night in February . With Best Actor, Actress, Best Director, Best Song, Best Special Effects – exactly the same as the one held in L.A. in 2009. To see the rest of the winners in 2552 and some glamorous red carpet pictures of Thailand’s movie stars, check out Lyn’s Lakorn blog and Wise Kawi’s film Journal.
is a scenic artist and filmmaker who lives part time in Ohio and Khon Kaen. He first came to Thailand in 1972 as a child and returned in 2004 with the Phuket Project to aid in the Tsunami relief effort.
Yui
is a doctor in Khon Kaen. She has studied in the U.S. and Great Britiain but is happiest on a bike riding around Thailand with the Khon Kaen Mountain Bike Team
Tom and Shampoo
are English Cocker Spaniels who live in Khon Kaen, but often travel to other planets in a spaceship they designed and fight alongside Hanuman against all evil. They also like swimming and sleeping.
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