I was talking with a Thai friend, Weena, last night, and she reminded me of something: Protests are new to Thailand.

Protesting isn’t new to Thailand, but I guess protesting without being violently cracked down on by military and police is. This dark chapter in Thai history gets brushed aside way too often so I felt I had to make that correction.

At that time especially (but throughout history really), the Thai elite — in that case the military regime — has actively repressed intellectuals and critical thinkers. After the Thammasat massacre, a lot of them were driven towards the communist armed resistance, and were killed in the fighting or de facto silenced when granted amnesty.

That protests are new here is an important thing for me to consider when I wonder why so many people want the protests to stop with the issues remaining unresolved, for things to go back to sabai sabai.

When looking at Thailand today as outsiders, a surprisingly large part of the general public often seems strangely disinterested in politics (those who “just want the protests to go away” because they are causing traffic jams). It is easy to make the mistake of thinking that this is because Thailand is at the very beginning of some natural process towards a modern democracy, and Thais just don’t know how this whole democracy thing works yet. But we shouldn’t forget that only 30 years ago it was incredibly dangerous to show too much interest in politics or have an open exchange of opinions in a classroom. My perception is that privately Thais think more about politics than they let on, but of course where politics isn’t discussed in schools, among friends, or even in the family, there is also more genuine disinterest.

My main point is that the ongoing protests are just the latest chapter of a long struggle by the Thai people against the elite for more political freedom. Thais are not suddenly presented with political liberties, but they have fought very hard and shed blood (not just symbolically in protest) for them every step of the way.

For my generation in America, I would argue we think about protests as being indicative of free speech. And by extension, as being a healthy and necessary grass-roots check on democracy. And even if my generation isn’t taking to the streets as often, I think we’re protesting in other ways, in our blogs, in the comments we post, in the jobs we take, in the politicians’ campaigns we go work on.

I too feel that protests are vital to democracy. One of the big problems in our “advanced” democracies is that the electorate is passivised; the political class is not only in charge of working out the details as it were, but also relied on for ideas and direction. Then, every four years we vote for one of two increasingly indistinguishable candidates and feel like we’re in charge.

Actual grass-roots movements that take place outside the space that we as a society conventionally reserve for politics, like political protests, initiatives (and yes, strong unions) are not only signs of a healthy democracy, they are necessary parts of democracy. More than anything else, protests get people passionate about issues, and this passion is essential to really make the voice of the people heard.

So when lckelley says that our generation protests in “other ways” I think she is taking the easy way out. A blog post or career choice is a poor substitute for an angry mob. Actual protests have all but disappeared from political life in the west, and I think that is a problem we shouldn’t underestimate.

If I was one to write cheesy conclusions to posts on the Internet I could end with this: For getting passion back into politics, and for democracy beyond mere going through the motions, we could learn a lesson from Thai protesters.

Please let me know what you like / don’t like about it, I need everybody’s feedback to help me build better sites.

Oh and don’t be shy to ask me for the theme!! If there’s enough interest I will gladly publish it somewhere. It’s all open source

Leaflet

The text roughly translates as:

New work for teenagers

We are now recruiting the youngest team ever to use programs such as MSN, hi5 and Camfrog [webcam chat, also with "adult rooms"]. Work after studying for 1-2 hours, daily income is 500 THB on average. If interested, contact [phone number] urgently for an appointment.

Those are junior / high school kids (มัธยม) and 500 THB (~=10 EUR) is a lot of money. Depressing

#!/usr/bin/python

import urllib2,re,time,os

url = "http://www.google.com"
needle = "I'm Feeling Lucky"
sound = "~/music/Rage\ Against\ The\ Machine\ -\ Rage\ Against\ The\ Machine/07\ -\ Rage\ Against\ The\ Machine\ -\ Wake\ Up.mp3"

def is_down(url,needle):
    print "checking..."
    try:
        source=urllib2.urlopen(url)
        content=source.read()
        pattern=re.compile(needle)
        if re.search(pattern,content):
            return False
        else:
            return True
    except:
        return True

while 1:
    if is_down(url,needle):
        print "site down!"
        os.system('mpg123 '+sound)
    else:
        print time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S",time.localtime()),"Up"
        time.sleep(10)

I was very surprised when last week’s episode — after discussing the implications of Darwinian theory for modernization of man — turned towards a certain subject of grave importance that to date has been largely overlooked by serious media: ping pong shows.

In the second segment of the show, host Laurie Taylor interviews Nottingham PhD student Erin Sanders, who has been talking to women tourists attending sex shows in Thailand for her thesis titled: Women? What women? An exploration of western women’s voyeuristic encounters with the sex industry in Thailand

Here’s a short excerpt: (rough transcript by yours truly)

Taylor: When you asked them why they went, what sort of accounts did they give you?

Sanders: There are a variety of accounts. Most of them didn’t seem to have any very clear reason for why they went, except that they saw the ping pong show as a distinctly Thai cultural experience. And that’s really how they described it, some of them likened it to going to a ballet. Going to a ping pong show is the Thai version of going to a ballet. They said that, you now, friends had talked about it. It was something that was really part of the sort of tourist discourse about Thailand.

The whole segment is really well worth listening to, and not just because it’s a strangely scientific approach to the all too familiar seediness of sex tourism in Thailand. Among other things Sanders talks about the phenomenon of “dark tourism” and the role of white women tourists in promoting the Thai sex industry.

To me, hearing Brits talk about Thailand as a sex tourism destination is a reminder of what folks back home associate with Thailand: ping pong shows, ladyboys, and cheap prostitutes. I think this is especially true for Europe, and to a lesser extend for North America.

Living in Bangkok, it’s easy sometimes to forget about Thailand’s reputation abroad, both because you get so used to seeing the sex tourists in certain parts of the city that they start to seem like the most normal thing in the world, and because Thais rarely ever talk about what’s going on in those areas.

I’m sure that most of my Thai friends and acquaintances have a good hunch that beaches aren’t the only thing all these male tourists come to Thailand for. But many of them never set foot into Pat Pong, or Nana Plaza, or Soi Cowboy, and it’s not like sex tourism is ever discussed in Thai media, so the issue is all the easier to ignore. Most Thais would probably be shocked and embarrassed if they were fully aware of Thailand’s image overseas.

This morning, for the first time since I prematurely ended my soccer career at the age of 12, I got some exercise for the sake of exercise.

I ran about 2km on a treadmill, did 20 situps (against an incline!), and finally some upper body workout at some devil machine. At that point I was too busy panting to count how many times i pushed what lever and pulled what pulley. All in all it took about 30 minutes (or 7 songs of Nas’ 1994 album Illmatic.)

I knew it was going to be bad, but oh boy. I think I had stomach cramps at one point, and I almost threw up but that was probably because I drank too much water. I’m pretty beat right now but man, I know I’ll really feel it tomorrow.

Aren’t you supposed to feel good after a workout? Maybe I’m doing something wrong. For my next session I’ll have to check out some youtubes or something, like the pale flabby nerd that I am.

(03:38:15 PM) [Name withdrawn]: you think using Wireless Router will make internet speed slower
(03:38:16 PM) [Name withdrawn]: ?
(03:40:17 PM) till: no
(03:40:41 PM) till: not unless you have REALLY FAST internet lol
(03:41:30 PM) [Name withdrawn]: what do you mean?
(03:45:05 PM) till: nevermind. a wireless router will not slow down your internet
(03:45:20 PM) [Name withdrawn]: thanks!
(03:48:10 PM) [Name withdrawn]: btw, you’re such a nerd.

Owned o_O

Bangkok Blogstar

A few hours ago she was at the Central World Shopping Center, Bangkok. “It was echotastic” she wrote, “but then lightning hit.” She wrote this on twitter. She also posted that she was on Phuket for the weekend, where she had an unpleasant encounter with a repulsing foreign reporter: “Do you write for an English magazine, he asked. Yes, I said. No, really? he said. Am I not speaking English with you, you idiot?” [All quotes are loosely translated back and forth and prob. nothing like the orig. posts?]

Her name is Alisara Chorapongse, she loves the color pink and is obsessed with fashion. For years she has been running an an accordingly themed blog, starting out with a small readership, and this would be the end of the story if the Thai military hadn’t staged a coup in 2006, followed by a news blackout, as usual for a coup d’etat. But then, this kitty showed her claws. “The military is staging a coup!” she blogged. “It’s over for the government. The military is in power!” She posted photos of the troops and organized a campaign against the army’s attempts to win her over for censorship. Ever since, she is known in the whole world and talked about from time to time. Today, for example, here.

And ever since the coup, she doesn’t like like roadblocks, either. Yesterday the Rama 1 road in Bangkok was blocked, which she criticized right away. “Why I care? Because I have yet to pick up my pictures from Phuket and I can’t access the shop.”

www.gnarlykitty.org