Eyewitness History of Thailand 2010-2017 [1 ed.]

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Eyewitness History of Thailand 2010-2017 ©2023 by Wesley Gibbs and Walking The Ceiling Publishing

Table of Contents 1. How the 2014 Coup Was Carried Out 2.Rak Mak - How Abuse Of Thai Students Supports Military Fascism and Monarchy 3.Thailand Diary - Lessons Learned From The 2010 Massacre of Civilians

It often felt as if nobody wanted this story to be told. Everything required enormous patience. I had to undertake long journeys. I did not seek any funding for writing this book; I lived on income from other work. I felt that if I received funding it would influence my angle, and I wanted to be totally free in describing what I saw. - Andre Vltchek, Archipelago of Fear

How the 2014 Military Coup in Thailand Was Carried Out Second Edition

By Tom Huck © 2022 by Tom Huck and Walking The Ceiling Publishing

Table of Contents 1.How The 2014 Military Coup Was Carried Out

2.The Psychological Situation In Thailand Is One Of

Pure Terror

3. How Thailand Is A Neo Colonial Gulag Of The USA And Western Capital

4.The Thai Monarchy Is A Plague Upon the Country

5. Isaan’s Relationship With Bangkok

6. Why The United Nations And The International Criminal Court Are Useless In Thailand

7. Western Media's Atrocious Record On Thailand

8.Why Jay-Z And Beyonce Are Full Of It

9.Why Thai Students Are Ritually Beaten

"That which the wise man will not take, the king will go through fire and water to obtain."- Jack Kerouac

Introduction Thailand is currently a Stalinist Stazi Terror state. Stalinist because it is a dictatorship. Stazi because it is a snitch society where ratting out your fellow countrymen is rewarded. Terror because that’s how the ultra right wing retains power.

Chapter 1 - How the 2014 Military Coup in Thailand Was Carried Out Today we're going to talk about how the 2014 coup was pulled off in Thailand and what happened.

So around November and December of 2013 Yingluck Shiniwatra’s party in the elected parliament put up a bill that was a tit for tat, quid pro quo where they would give the the fascist party some some crumbs in exchange for letting the former elected prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, off the hook. Basically giving him immunity for false accusations made against him.

The fascists, which include the military and the monarchy, couldn't stand for that. So they used it as an excuse to start protests in the street. And so for months there was a huge “anti government” protest. Starting in late November 2013 and through New Year's of 2014.

The protests were well financed. They had state-of-the-art sound systems. They had free food and free water for anybody who showed up. Where that money came from you might guess. (The monarchy and their military. Though you can’t say that, or the ultra right wing in Thailand will kill you.)

Several Thai corporations and businesses donated generally to “The PDRC” (People;s Democratic Reform Committee), which was the front group for the protests against Yingluck’s elected government.

Following is a list of several of these companies.

Here is a link to a video of ultra right wing politico Suthep marching around Bangkok in 2013 making a fool of himself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKuUfYbAjKw

The protests caused the election in February 2014 to be canceled.

After that, the attendance in the protests started to fall off and the “anti government” BS became extremely unpopular.

But what happened during the election is important.

The February 21 election was canceled because the fascist party, which includes the military and the monarchy, sent hired terrorists into the street. These were mostly working class fascists from the south of Thailand, from in the Kra Isthmus, including cities like Phuket. These right wing mercenaries were walking around shooting off guns terrorizing people everywhere. Smashed up people’s car windows randomly. Smashed in bus windows with old people terrified inside.

They shot Mai Neung, probably the best Thai language poet of this generation. Shot him while he was sitting in a parked car.

There was a famous popcorn gunman at the mall in downtown Bangkok. He went out in public and started shooting off his gun randomly at shoppers in the street.

My former boss at the school where I worked was an English guy. He was married to a Thai national. He said, after the popcorn gunman, basically,

“Forget this country. This is insane. These people are out of their minds.” And so he picked up and quit the job. Took his family and moved back to England because it was too crazy.

So these terrorists and assassins were out with pickaxes and knives and they killed people in the street.

This was completely not reported. I did see a report in the Thai newspaper that said that up to 60 people were killed during these protests leading up to the coup. And the Western media - including Jerome Taylor of AFP and Jonathan Head of the BBC - and the New York Times and The Economist and the Financial Times and the so called business press always consistently said that this was a “bloodless coup”. And there could not be anything farther from the truth. 60 people died they're all poor workers who wanted their vote to count in Thailand.

Okay, so leading up to this Feb 2014 election, the streets were riddled with these armed violent terrorists out there killing people. And the election was supposed to be in February.

But in those counties in the south, like Nakhon Ti Samarat, Phuket and Songkla, down in those provinces, the terrorists and military hired thugs, went out to the polling stations and just sat there with guns.

So people knew if they went in to vote in those counties that they would be attacked. There was a photo of one guy getting set upon and strangled because he showed up to vote.

During that election the whole rest of the country voted and they voted overwhelmingly for Yingluck to stay in office.

However these six provinces in the south did not report a single vote. Because basically the polling places were functionally shut down by these terrorists sponsored by the military in the monarchy.

The Thailand Election Commission, which was supposed to oversee the election, is appointed by the monarchy. Again, this is a fact that will never be told to you by Jonathan Head or Jerome Taylor or the Financial Times or The Economist or any serious Western paper reporting from Thailand. They won't tell you that the basic fundamental point of the Election Commission is that they were appointed by the monarchy and they could care less about fair elections.

The Election Commission said something along the lines of “we've got six provinces that didn't vote so we have to throw out this election.” Which is what the monarchy wanted.

There's 77 provinces in Thailand. But six of them didn't vote. So this whole election is invalid and oh look here's some people with guns who are pointing their guns at our head so we might as well let them take control of the government of the country. Blah Blah. Ha. Ha. Joke’s on everybody.

The election was declared invalid. And this was fuel for the fire lit by the military and monarchist thugs. Shortly after, they attacked the government house. And Yingluck, who was the elected prime minister, sent the police out to defend the government house. But the police were unarmed. Basically fighting to defend against a military coup with shields and batons.

And the monarchist thugs were armed with guns. They shot a policeman point blank in the chest and killed him.

And there's a picture on Getty Images which shows one of these protesters throwing a lit petrol bomb or Molotov cocktail right into the Government Compound.

Guns or gun ownership is illegal in Thailand. So how these people got their hands on guns is that they got them directly from the military. I mean everybody knows this. Everybody who is or was there knows this. You can't talk about it because if you talk about it you'll be lynched or fitted up with defaming the monarchy charges and put in jail for decades.

I would say it's a tragedy. Unless you are a jacked up fascist or apologist for right wing US foreign policy.

If people in this next upcoming election in Thailand want to make sure that the dictatorship does not stay in power, what they should do is just not vote. Just don't go to the polling place. Or send people there and block it or close it down or just blow it up.

Then by precedent of the Election Commission, which was appointed by the monarchy, they'll have to throw out the Election.

However since the Election Commission was appointed by the monarchy, of course they'll apply double standards, as they always do.

For example, if six counties in Isan did not vote in the election, and it turned out that an extreme far-right fascist won the election, then the Election Commission would fall all over themselves to certify the election. That's how it'll work.

That's some interesting information about how the 2014 coup in Thailand happened. I hope it was helpful and informative for you.

Thank you for your consideration and have a nice day.

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Chapter 2 - The Psychological Situation in Thailand is One of Pure Terror Today we're gonna talk about the psychological situation for Thai people in Thailand who support democracy, or maybe don't like the monarchy. Let's go through some specific examples.

If you're a student who supports democracy. If you liked Yingluck. If you were upset that she got railroaded out in a military coup. Then what you can expect is, to be propagandized in your classroom with impunity by your teachers who support the military coup (and the monarchy of course who supported the coup).

And if you if you disagree or you express anything in opposition you'll be

beaten and terrorized. By your own teachers. You may be lynched and bullied by your fellow students. And nobody's gonna help you if you complain to the school administration or police.

They're gonna laugh at you if you complain. Teachers and the administration will probably put you in detention or report you for disagreeing with the delusion that the military coup was a good idea or that the monarchy is a great asset for the country.

What if you're in university and you don't like the corruption in the military? If you don’t like the expensive submarines or the bomb detectors that don't work. Or axing 20% of the education budget to give to the civil servants as hush money after the military coup in 2014?

What you can expect is, like activist Jaa New, having your family members be hunted down and put in jail on trumped up charges. And they may be sentenced to decades - multiple tens of years in prison for “insulting the monarchy”. Even if you didn't say anything, they'll fit you up with fake made up charges.

What if you're a worker who didn't support the military coup and supported the election of Yingluck? You can expect to be killed in the streets.

Nick Nostitz did a long piece about an average worker guy’s funeral when the protests first started. He went out to confront these pro monarchy, pro military, pro coup people and he was killed in the street.

What if you are in the military and you don't like the way the military is going? You don't like their contempt for democracy. You don't like them running coup after coup for 50 years?

You can expect to be assassinated. Have your head blown off by a sniper, like the commander Seh Daeng, who got assassinated while he was having an interview with the New York Times.

What if you're a poet from Isaan? Like Mai Nueng? Who is extremely popular and probably the best Thai language poet of the last generation? You can expect to be hunted down and have bullets put in your chest. Assassinated while you're sitting in a parked car in a parking lot.

What if you're a prison activist? What if you do work in support of political prisoners? You can expect to be abducted and held in a military camp for weeks and raped. Like Krit Sudha. And then kicked out of the country permanently.

What if you're a transgender person like Aum Neko who supports democracy? You can expect to be kicked out of the country.

What if you're a professor like Giles Ungpakorn or any other professors who speak out against the military or the monarchy? You can expect to be kicked out of the country. And have a bounty put on your head.

What if you are an outspoken supporter of republican government like Ko Tee, who fled Thailand and went to Laos and ran anti-monarchy pro-republican radio broadcasts out of Laos? You can expect to have the Lao government sell you out and allow Thai special forces to come into Laos and kidnap you and torture and kill you. Exactly like they did to Ko Tee.

What if you're a labor organizer? You can expect, as Mr. Ayudhya, a real live labor organizer said in his formal statement, that you can expect your company to hire thugs to track you down and intimidate you with violence.

Or if you're a labor organizer like Mr. Somyot? Who is probably one of the best and most outspoken labor organizers in Thailand. You can expect to be put in jail for publishing an article you didn't write.

He was a publisher of a magazine and he published a story by another writer. And because the military could not figure out who the writer was, they grabbed the publisher, Mr. Somyot, and put him in jail.

He was in jail for three years and then they charged him with insulting the monarchy, and sentenced him for another 11 years. That's what you can expect for labor organizers.

Or what if you work at the Ford plant and you go on strike for better working conditions and higher wages?

You can expect after your strike that you are ordered to report to a military camp for pro business brainwashing and psychological conditioning.

What if you're just a regular student like in the various schools where I worked? You can expect your teachers to show up every Monday dressed in a fake military uniform. You can expect to be required to support the monarchy even though you watch them sign off on coup after coup.

You will see the old Queen go to the funeral of a vicious yellow shirt terrorist killer. You can see the Queen, your queen, go and support these people who use violence. And you have to support her or else.

For example, in 1976, you would expect the current king to go watch extreme right wing terrorists lynch and murder young people who supported democracy.

You would watch monarchist thugs hanging young students from trees and beating them to death with a folding chair. That's what you can expect if you're a student.

So what if you are a Thai person and you would want to turn to foreigners outside the country for help? You might expect to be groped or hit on by your foreign teachers. Which I've seen personally happen with my own eyes.

If you go for example to the Western journalists like Jonathan Head of the BBC or Jerome Taylor of AFP, you can expect to get NO coverage at all. You can expect them to trash Yingluck on Twitter as Jerome Taylor did, while not reporting at all on monarchist violence. You can expect BBC reporter Jonathon Head to just ignore everything you said.

Specifically, I asked Jonathan Head, “Can you please once just say that the monarchy appoints the judiciary?” (From which the BBC constantly says Yingluck and Taksin are ‘fugitive from justice’.) Head replies to me “It's beyond me.” This is the BBC correspondent in Thailand who is the president of the foreign correspondents club in Thailand. (Foreign Imperialists Club.)

Most foreign reporting in Thailand is a joke. It's truly horrifying. That's what you can expect for the Western media.

Or say, for example, you are a student and you want to turn to your Western teachers. Like the guy who runs ajarn.com. You can expect him to say “We need to stay

out of it.” when they're running a fascist military against your elected government.

And you get these Westerners like the French Club of Pattaya saying ~oh well maybe it's a good idea if we have a coup.

So many Westerners in Thailand are shameless. They are just some of the the worst human beings you could ever imagine meeting or having to deal with.

For example the Western publisher of the English language city paper in Pattaya who refused to run any information about my students being beaten nearly into the hospital by their Thai teachers. Later this was reported and became an issue. But at the time, he would not touch it, saying it was “defamation”. Even though I had recorded evidence.

That’s it. The psychological situation for democracy activists in Thailand is absolutely terrifying. It's horrifying. The monarchy and military run a non-stop terror regime.

You could even call the former king of Thailand, Bhumibol, who shot his own brother to obtain the throne, the terror king. Because he constantly intimidated and brutalized anyone in the Thai working class who supported democracy .

And then you've got these Western businesses that operate in Thailand who won't say a word about the coup.

Like for example Dow Chemical. I saw on the back of a songthaew, an advertisement for their job that pays $500 a month - five hundred dollars a month - for a job with no benefits. Not a word against the coup.

And so you wonder why doesn't the United States, the so-called home of democracy, do anything about it?

You look at the US ambassador to Thailand, Davies. He was there prior to the coup, through the coup, and after the coup. He did not say a word about the military coup dictatorship. It’s ~his~ dictatorship. He loved it.

He won't call it a dictatorship because they're all like buddy-buddy. They all support fascist coups because these foreign companies use Thailand as a slave farm to pay unbelievably low wages to these workers Western factories.

Like, for example, an Italian tire company, or Korean electronics company where I worked. Or the Ford company or a Toyota company or any number of Western enterprises in Thailand. They don't say anything. It's unbelievable. I mean it really just goes to show you like really what's going on.

So the greatest export in Thailand is computer and electronic parts. not coconuts or rubber or rice or mangoes. It's computer parts. And secondarily automobiles and automobile parts.

They're running a protection racket for people who are manufacturing slave labor goods. And they bring those cheap goods over here to America with zero tariffs and use it to undercut the US economy and the US working class. And nobody will do or say anything about it.

So that's where you are.

I can tell you one thing. A book that helped me get through this situation, recommended by my friend in Finland, is called “Political Ponerology” by Polish psychologist Andrzej Łobaczewski. That book gives tactics on how people dealt with and got through the corruption in the communist occupation of Poland from the time of the Second World War up until Solidarity.

So there you go. The political situation in Thailand is completely terrifying and Horrifying. I would be remiss if I did not speak the truth about what's going on. Thank you very much

for your consideration and have a nice day.

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Chapter 3 - How Thailand is a Neo Colonial Gulag of the USA and Western Capital. “The European colonial system has not actually disappeared, but instead continues to exist in an implicit and hidden manner.” - Cheng Yawen, Shanghai International Studies University 2023 “It is a massive illusion that post colonialism ever happened. We live in the midst of it.” -Matt Kennard Author of Silent COup May 28, 2023

I came to the conclusion that Thailand is a neo-colonial gulag of the United States and Western capital after reading a couple of books by a Kenyan writer named Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.

The books are “A Writer's Prison Diary”, and “Decolonizing The Mind.”

He wrote the “Writer’s Prison Diary” on toilet paper after he was incarcerated by Kenyatta. (Who Malcolm X said was a good guy! And said we need to name our children Kenyatta!)

Thiongo has been nominated for a Nobel Prize twice. He didn't win, but he's an excellent writer. And his books are gripping. They’re some of the best contemporary books I've ever read.

In The Writer’s Prison Diary, Thiongo described the situation in Kenya under British rule in the 1950s. And what he described was almost

exactly word for word what goes on in Thailand with regards to the Thai sex industry and expatriate Westerners living there.

Things like gogo bars, prostitution, and all those kind of things were described by Thiongo to be exactly, identically the same as it was in Kenya in the 1950s.

It was shocking to me when I read it. Thailand is almost identical to the situation in Kenya prior to their liberation from colonial British rule.

If you go to Thailand right now you can find a lot of British people who are doing the exact same thing that British people were doing in Kenya in the 1950s.

The other book I read that pertains to this is John Perkins

“Confessions of an Economic Hitman,” as well as a couple of sequels to that book.

According to Perkins, these Western companies go to countries like Thailand to take advantage of the cheap labor. As well as take advantage of the terrorist dictatorship that keeps a gun to the head of every worker in the country.

If workers try to organize they'll be met with violence, and intimidation. And if they are organized like the workers at the Ford plant in Thailand, who went on strike in 2017, they will be ordered to a military camp. To get their thinking put straight.

Just like where? Communist gulags that we are taught to fear and hate?

The Western companies that are over there, for example Yum, Ford, Pirelli, Dow, LG, as well as computer hardware companies, will not say anything at all about the coup d'etat. Because they benefit directly from it.

They have no interest in democracy. No interest in the benefits of the Western system. Those benefits should not be applied to Thai people, and especially not to the workforce in Thailand.

These companies just have no interest. All they want is cheap terrorized labor. Intimidated labor they can exploit to the hilt in order to make immediate profits.

And they are enabled by the US ambassador who won't say anything. Who even does photo ops with incredibly reactionary right-wing Thais.

US Ambassador, Photo OP with notorious Thai ultra right winger and absolute monarchist

The ultra right wing Military/Monarchy of Thailand runs endless dictatorships that just keep a gun to the head of the population. And the Thai right wing has no qualms, like in 2010, against just gunning down dozens of democracy activists in the street.

And I mean unarmed civilians, like students, and a nurse who was assassinated while trying to take refuge in a temple.

(The temples rely on the monarchy and military for patronage, so what do these Theravada Buddhists care?)

—

Who do these people in the Thai dictatorship work for? They certainly don't work for Thai people. They work for international capital. They’re traitors against Thailand.

In Khon Kaen, a city in the North East of Thailand, the military-appointed

governor claimed that the population of Khon Kaen is “stupid” and they need to get their thinking straight.

The dictatorship also from 2013 to 2019 canceled ALL elections in Thailand. All local elections, all provincial elections, and all national elections. Canceled.

Every single city governor, every single provincial governor, and every single national government official was appointed by the military. Top to bottom.

Even if there was an election, if a leash is not put on the military, or they don't even mention reform or abolishment of the monarchy, it's not gonna do any good.

Any government elected by the Thai people will stay empowered, like Yingluck, for about two or three years until somebody in the military gets a big stick up their butt and decides to just start blowing people away in the street. And then we'll do it all over again.

United States colonialism in Thailand started after World War II. In the early 1950s, shortly after Bhumibol shot his brother in the head in order to steal the throne of Thailand, the American CIA went into northern Thailand (which is occupied Isaan, or to be more specific, occupied Laos annexed by Thailand in a war in 1827).

Up there near the Lao border, there were many poor Thai people who were wanting to join the Communist Party. There were communist organizers across Northern Thailand who were gaining traction. Laos, just across the Mekong River was and still is a Communist country.

And so the US CIA ran an entire American taxpayer funded public relations

campaign on behalf of their buddies in the Thai monarchy. They dropped pro capitalist leaflets across the countryside. And the main thrust of the leaflets was “If you're a patriotic Thai you will support the monarchy. You will support Buddhism. And you'll support the Country.”

So it was “monarchy religion country”.

The same exact, identical, word for word line that you hear today. Because it comes from the American CIA.

All my students are out there every day doing a Buddhist wai and prostration to the King, the Buddha, and the country. They're doing

exactly what the CIA wants them to do. The Thai teachers are doing exactly what the American CIA wants them to do. The school administration and practically all the major institutions of the country are doing exactly what the American CIA wants them to do.

So called “independent” Thailand.

Also during this time, in the 1960s, the American State Department paved the entire country of Thailand. All the roads

from Bangkok down to U-tapao Air Force Base near Rayong. Where the US Air Force flew bombers into Vietnam and Cambodia to just blow people away.

Including civilians.

The USA also built the roads up to Isaan in the Northeast, and up to Chiang Mai. The American taxpayer paid for the roads in Thailand. That's what you probably don't know.

So, not once did America ever complain when there was coup after coup after coup in Thailand. There were 18 coups during the Bhumibol reign. And with absolute contempt for democracy, as the king, he supported and signed off on all of them.

Meanwhile, his sponsors, the Americans, never said a word. Never did anything to oppose his fascist anti democratic reign. Democracy so called is great for Panama, or Iraq, or Ukraine. But it is unthinkable in the colonial outback of Thailand.

Also of interest, during the Bush Jr. “War of Terror” era, the US ran torture centers in Thailand. This was known, but it was denied in America.

It was denied by the US right wing and the Thai right wing. Right up to the coup in 2014 there were still people saying “oh we don’t really do torture chambers in Thailand.”

So now it's out in the open because Trump promoted Gina Haspel to be the head of the CIA, and she oversaw torture centers in Thailand.

It's also been entered into the United States Congress senatorial record that torture centers exist in Thailand.

So I don't think anybody can deny that now.

____

Let me go back and talk once more about another US company. Western Digital. Where I worked in one of these industrial estates in the northeast, they made the internal parts for hard drives. Which were used in computer hard drives for IBM computers as well as Apple computers.

The head of quality control in this Factory on the industrial estate where I worked, a Thai national, lived in a one-room cinder block apartment with his wife and child.

Imagine that. Imagine a western person as the head of quality control for a major international company producing hard drives and internal

parts for hard drives that go into IBM as well as Apple computers. And have them living in a one-room cinder block apartment with their wife and child. Imagine that.

The other thing I want to say is that foreigners won't do anything about this. The country is overrun with foreigners who are just absolutely corrupted by the system.

They go over there and they can get cheap food, cheap drinks, cheap apartments, cheap girls, cheap massages. You know, everything is so cheap. It is just like, hey, it's so easy to have a good time.

And so when the Thai ultra right wing starts blowing away people in the street, or putting a bullet in Seh Daeng's head, or Mai Neung’s chest, foreigners don't do anything. They don't care. It's unreal. It's unbelievable.

For example in my school, when Thai teachers were illegally beating the crap out of my students, foreigners would not say anything. And when I started to complain about it, all of them - every single one of them - refused to help. And that includes the publishers of the newspapers and so on.

If you go on the internet, any place on the internet about Thailand, you'll just see apology after apology for corruption and terror. How it's not so bad to run a military coup. How it's not so bad to overturn an elected government. How it's not so bad that nobody cares that the blood is running through the streets and the people live in constant terror.

If you complain or raise issues, you'll get passively aggressive told to leave the country by butthurt sex tourists.

ESL cafe on their Thailand section, during the coup there's people on there making excuse after excuse for a coup. Insulting Thai people and saying they are too infantile and corrupt to handle democracy.

Then look on reddit’s main Thailand site and it is filled with people who don't care about anything in the country.They're only interested in their cheap little Tricks. And if you even raise a legitimate question about the dictatorship, or the monarchy, they'll ban you. It is a little better now, but not much better than when I was there.

Also on this reddit forum, I was given threats including death threats for opposing the coup in 2014. Really ugly bunch of people in there.

Then there is the Thai visa site. It's like a honey pot for these predatory lawyers. The very first question I answered on the Thai visa site was this: “What do you do in the theater when you go see a movie in Thailand and they play this Public Relations video for the monarchy before every single movie?Everybody has to stand up in the movie theater. What do you do? Do you stand up? Do you sit down? What do you do?”

I answered this question, and I said, “Oh man, I can't stand it. When that comes on, I'm up out of my seat. I go to the bathroom and just go get some popcorn or coke and come back when it's over because I have no interest.”

Immediately I got threatened with legal action. They were going to bring charges against me for potentially defaming the monarchy. It's a total setup.

I mean it's grotesque the number of western people on Thai visa who are looking for a fix and cannot say one word in support of democracy or the people of Thailand.

So I say all of this in service to me trying to explain to you that Thailand has almost no political sovereignty or autonomy.

Thailand is basically run by foreign capital. The Thai monarchy and military don’t work for the people of Thailand. They work for foreign capital and foreign businesses who are completely subservient to this corrupt paradigm.

When any Thai person wants to exercise self-rule and self-determination, they'll be shot in the street. To great applause from most westerners.

So I hope this was informative for you and I hope that this gives you some food for thought the next time someone laughably claims that Thailand ‘has never been colonized’.

Chapter 4 - The Thai Monarchy is a Plague Upon the Country. Let's go over several points that the Western media will never tell you.

Number one. In a 1972 book called “The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia,” Alfred McCoy said “the Thai monarchy is actively engaged in drug trafficking.”

Number two. During the Vietnam War Thailand’s King Bhumibol said that United States anti-war activists were “brainwashed.” So if you're an anti-war person, like Daniel Berrigan, Ammon Hennecy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Brain Willson, Harry Belafonte, or Muhammad Ali, you're brainwashed according to the Thai king.

Number three. Thai King Bhumibol told the Dalai Lama that “military governments are good for developing countries”. And he made sure that Thailand suffered from military governments the entire time that he was the king.

Number four. In 1976 there was a civil society protest against the military government. That military government was approved by the Thai king. And so on October 6th, 1976 the Thai Royalists went into Thammasat University where that where these young students were protesting for an election, and the Royalists lynched them. They rounded them up and tortured and killed a bunch of young students. Terrorized everybody. It was truly horrifying.

There's this iconic picture of one of the democracy protesters hung up from a tree. Obviously with a broken neck, and beaten to death with a folding chair. If you look for it you can find it online.

But according to Paul Hanley, who wrote the book The King Never Smiles, the current King (Rama 10), was actually there at the lynching.

Following this horrible terror against the democracy protesters, the Thai monarchy did nothing against the military and nothing against the extreme right wing that lynched these young people.

Number five. Regarding the current Thai King, there's a video of him and his former girlfriend, Sri Rasmi, having a birthday for his dog. And in this video Sri Rasmi is in a g-string, topless, kneeling on the floor. In front of the hired help. It looks absolutely terrible.

Number six. When this current King got tired of his compliant g-string mistress, he terrorized her family. I believe he had one of her family killed, her uncle or her father. And then he forced her to go live in a monastery in Chiang Mai permanently.

So if she leaves this monastery I'm led to believe that she's going to be killed.

Number seven. In 2010 there was another democracy protest. People demanded elections after Abhisit’s extreme right-wing government assumed power during a parliamentary coup. Abhisit was never elected. He was jiggered into office by parliamentary shenanigans which were put in place by the military coup of 2006. And so people naturally wanted an election. They wanted to be able to determine their own prime minister.

And in 2010 the protesters took it right to the middle of downtown Bangkok. To the primary shopping center. And they just camped out.

They lived there for weeks. And it drove the military insane. Drove them absolutely crazy.

After a few months, the military was driven so insane, they just went in there and shot these people like dogs in the street.

About 99 total people reported dead, but I am sure it was more.

Some of the protesters ran into a Wat, which is like a Buddhist temple or Buddhist church. And the military just went in there and killed them. On the holy grounds of the temple. It's absolutely horrifying and disgusting.

So what did the monarchy do? Nothing. Just like 1976. They did nothing. They don't care. Remember what Bhumibol said “military governments are good for developing countries”.

Number nine. I will say this. The one thing that you never hear in the Western press about the Thailand judiciary is that they're all appointed by the monarchy.

So when the UN came to visit Thailand to investigate this 2010 massacre of civilians, the Thailand judiciary refused to cooperate. Wouldn't let the UN into the country. Shut the door and told them to go away. And unfortunately, the UN went away.

You'll never hear Jonathan Head of The BBC tell you where the judiciary comes from. You'll never hear Jerome Taylor of AFP tell you where the judiciary comes from or who appoints the judiciary.

This is the same judiciary that during the 2014 election completely annulled the election because six extreme right-wing provinces in the

South refused to vote in the election. The monarchists put literal thugs outside the polling places with machine guns and they threatened people who went to vote, and beat them up so there were no results returned from these six provinces.

And the judiciary annulled the election at the behest of this bunch of right wing terrorists.

Now if there was another election and people in the Northeast or in Chiang Mai refused to vote the judiciary would ignore it and they would allow the extreme right-wing to take power because “military

governments are good for developing countries.”

Number ten. The Siam Cement company is the business wing of the monarchy. And according to a Forbes article, this Siam Cement company is losing money. Despite the fact that Siam Cement pays no taxes in Thailand and they get a huge subsidy, a huge check from the national treasury every year. And yet they can't turn a profit. It's amazing.

Also Siam Cement is completely opaque and non transparent. You can't find out anything about them. And I imagine if you criticize them, you'll go to jail.

Number eleven. The monarchy never abolished lese majeste. Which is a penalty for insulting the king. And this is a device that's used by the extreme right wing to terrorize everyone. Including labor

organizers like Mr. Somyot who was given an 11 year sentence for publishing an article that was not written by him.

They hate labor, and especially labor organizers. And they wanted any excuse to put Somyot away. So they put him down for 11 years.

Also the ultra right wing Monarchy allows no political debate and anyone who is a political republican or thinks that the monarchy needs to be abolished or even simply amended and reformed, they go to jail. They are immediately terrorized. Lucky if they're not killed in the street or put in jail for decades.

This one singer named Tom Dundee was given a 25 year prison sentence for some songs that he wrote. Another guy was given 50 years for five Facebook posts. It's just unbelievable.

Bhumibol was the most powerful guy in the country and he could have abolished lese majeste and he didn't do it. Everybody says he's a great king, but Bhumibol never took this brutal tool away from the extreme right-wing in the country.

And so we have military governments forever in Thailand. Whatever you think about the monarchy, these are facts that you're never gonna hear anybody in the Western press talk about.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Chapter 5 - Isaan’s Relationship with Bangkok Today we're gonna talk about Isaan, which is the Northeast of Thailand. And Bangkok's relationship with Isaan.

My personal experience working in Thailand was that my co-workers and acquaintances, friends, people I had professional contact with, were all from Isaan. From Buriram. From NongKhai. From Ubon. From Udon. And also Khon Kaen.

All these people I worked with in a professional capacity. And I have to say they are some of the nicest people I ever met in my life.

And they have been subjected to all kinds of terror by the military, the monarchy, and the dictatorship currently in Bangkok.

Naturally I would like to defend the people's interests with whom I am acquainted and who I appreciate.

Isaan is in the north east of what is now Thailand. But it has not always been that way.

Before 1827, Isaan was part of Laos. In 1827 the Thai army invaded Laos.The Thai monarchy in Bangkok sent their army up there. Killed a bunch of people and looted and pillaged all the way up to the Lao capital of Vientiane.

The Thais burned Vientiane into the ground and they stole the emerald buddha. The same green buddha that sits in the

the center of Wat Phra Kaew that all the tourists go to see in Bangkok.

It’s called The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The green Buddha that the Thai king always prays to for making merit is stolen. It's stolen from Laos.

So in 1827 the Thais annexed all

of this area called Isaan. And even after 200 years, it's still culturally Laotian.

If you go to the University of Khon Kaen, on the outside, you will see an inscription in the local dialect of the Lao language. Not Thai.

Isaan people are ethnically Lao. Since 1827 you've had what's called a program of “Thai-ification.” Meaning Bangkok wants to change these people from Lao into Thai.

And they've not been completely successful.

Let's continue on and talk about what's happened in the last 20 years in regards to Bangkok and Lao Isaan.

Isaan is 1/3rd the population of Thailand. And most of the people who are workers in Thailand are from Isaan.

If you go to Thailand, and you go to the restaurants, or you go to the factories, or you go to the shops on the industrial estates, or you ride in a taxi, or you ride on a motorbike taxi, or you see people selling stuff on the side of the road, or on the sidewalk, or working in the stores, these people will most of the time be from Isaan.

And so their interests are basically the working class interests of Thailand

In 1997 there was an Asian currency crisis which led to an employment crisis in Thailand.

After this crisis in 1997, Thailand was able to elect Thaksin Shinawatra as Prime Minister. “Thaksin” was at that time a telecommunications magnate.

And during his prime ministership, he was able to run the economy at least efficiently, which actually raised the wages of people in Isaan for the first time in decades.

Of course, after this, Isaan people liked Thaksin a lot. And they reelected him.

This upset the rich people, the monarchy, and the military. Poor people in Bangkok culture are barely considered human.

Thaksin’s reelection drove the rich and powerful people in Bangkok completely and totally out of their minds.

Because, according to their culture, in Thailand you're not supposed to have democracy. You're not supposed to have elections. You're supposed to just take orders from them and their king. Whoever is most corrupt or most violent runs the show.

So Thaksin made the mistake of thinking he could improve his chances of being elected by helping the majority of the people in the country. And in 2006 the Thai military and their sponsors in the monarchy had a coup to run popular Thaksin out of elected office.

And it was a horrifying episode for people in Isaan. It was bad enough for one taxi driver to just ride his taxi at full speed into an oncoming military tank and get himself killed.

Unfortunately that's all you can do. They don't have gun ownership in Thailand, so you can't contest these types of violent people in the military who overturned Taksin.

So a military governor was installed, to great approval from the King. Later the ultra right wing were able to accomplish parliamentary shenanigans which got this claw-head back-massaging buck jumper named Abhisit “elected” through parliamentary actions.

Abhisist was not elected at the ballot box.

And he basically just turned out to be a big sell out to the monarchy, the military, and corrupt rich people and their sketchy businesses.

Abhisist was totally unpopular and was allowed to act the unaccountable fool by the ultra right wing.

Around 2010, the people from Isaan went to downtown Bangkok and camped out, and had a 24/7 protest that lasted for months and months. They wanted an election. They wanted to be able to elect their own prime minister.

And again, this drove the rich people in Bangkok out of their minds.

In an act of cold blooded brutality, they sent the military in and blew 99 people away. Shot them like dogs in the street.

These are unarmed civilians. Including women. A nurse got killed by an assassin’s bullet while she was taking refuge in a temple.

It was very ugly and horrible.

So these fascist killers in the military acted out in this way. And it was such a public relations nightmare that they later had to have an election.

In the election of 2011, Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shiniwatra, ran against this clod Abhisit.

And she won going away. Abhisit spent years talking about how popular he was and Yingluck kicked his political ass.

The poor people elected the person they wanted. Not who the monarchy and military wanted.

Yingluck was not a progressive person. She was and still is pro-monarchy, pro-business, pro-establishment, and pro status quo.

But she was able to get elected and that drove the people in Bangkok out of their minds yet again. They can't stand poor people getting what they want.

Because the people in Isaan are supposed to be slaves. They're supposed to take orders and shut up and not get humanity.

You should hear the way that the Bangkok people and the right wing press talk about people from Isaan. It is the most disgusting dehumanizing language imaginable. Once you hear that kind of dehumanizing language, you know that's the precursor to violence.

So Yingluck was in as Prime Minister for not quite four years.

And as in chapter one, the right wing used a bad pretext to run a violent coup against her government. They sent people from the fascist South. The Kra isthmus that runs down from Bangkok to Malaysia.

That is basically the most fascist ultra right wing pro monarchist part of the country.

They're pirates. They practice actual 21st century slavery. Human trafficking. It's the most horrible thing you could ever imagine. That is the monarchy’s political base.

The southerners always managed to get guns from the military. So they're always able to run up to Bangkok and overthrow any elected government. By kissing the monarchy’s ass, they always get what they want.

While the people in Isaan are systematically prevented from owning firearms.

And not only that, Isaan is now basically on lockdown.

You go up to the northeast, you see cops everywhere. Military police. These are guys with M16’s out in public. They just randomly pull people over for any reason or no reason.

Bangkok hates Isaan. Bangkok is all about money, and almost all the foreigners in Thailand live in Bangkok. They never go out of Bangkok.

I mean it's a miracle if you meet a foreigner who has spent any substantial time outside of Bangkok in the wilderness of the rest of the country.

It's a minor miracle if you can meet a foreigner who actually has any interest in speaking Thai. Learning Thai. Or learning about the local culture.

I know foreigners who have lived there for 12-13 years and still can't speak Thai. It's appalling.

So all of these people in Bangkok continually dehumanize people from Isaan.

In this last coup they canceled all the elections permanently.There will be no more real elections in Thailand. Every mayor, every provincial governor, every federal government official is appointed by the military.

Khon Kaen is on lockdown. The people in Bangkok think Khon Kaen is a terrorist city. Literally.

I would say if it's not as bad as the Palestinian situation it's close. And if you’re not from Khon Kaen, I don't think you have any business talking about what it's about, because you really don't know.

During the last coup when I took the minibus up to Laos to renew my visa. We got stopped on the road outside Khon Kaen and searched.

Even though I fully supported the elected government, and wrote many things that would get me shot, you know they didn't mess with me because I'm a foreigner.

But if you're from Isaan and you want the vote, you're lucky if they don't kill you on the spot.

If the military finds out that you want to vote, it's gonna be a world of living Hell.

If your friends live in Thailand and they live in Bangkok I would say their opinion on most everything is worthless in regards to Thailand.

This is the most neo-colonial situation you could ever imagine in your life.

Chapter 6 - Why The United Nations And The International Criminal Court Are Useless In Thailand In 2006 the Thai military ran a fascist military coup against the elected government of Thaksin Shiniwatra. From 2006 up until 2010, there was first a military government, followed by a parliamentary shenanigan election of a suck up kiss ass right winger named Abhisit. He was never elected.

Abhisist was up there ordering people around and making a big joke of himself, acting as if he was the legitimate Prime Minister of Thailand.

In 2010 the people who had voted for Taksin had enough. They staged a multi-month demonstration in the heart of downtown Bangkok. Right in the main shopping district. Right there where all the tourists and all the rich people could see them. Every day. Day in, day out. Day after day they were calling for elections. Week after week. Month after month.

This drove the rich people in Bangkok out of their ever loving minds.

In April, 2010 the unelected Abhisit government sent the Thai military in to basically butcher the protesters. To execute them in the street.

And so the military ended up killing about 99 people. Maybe more. They shot a nurse in the middle of a temple she had gone into the temple to take refuge and they shot her from outside the temple.

There's blood running through the streets. It was absolutely horrifying. I was in Pattaya at the time. They called curfew 100 miles away from Bangkok and people had to be inside their house by 8 o'clock. It was really nightmarish.

People whose family were killed filed complaints at the UN. And the UN sent people in to investigate.

According to the laws of the International Criminal Court, it requires cooperation of the local judiciary or the national judiciary of any country in question.

In this case, that would be the judiciary of Thailand, which was appointed by the monarchy. You'll never hear that particular fact from any Western reporter. You won't hear it from Jonathan Head at the BBC. You won't hear it from Jerome Taylor at AFP. You won't hear from the New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal or The Economist. You won't hear it from anybody.

But the monarchy did in fact appoint the judiciary in Thailand. And so this judiciary has no interest whatsoever in providing justice for the poorest citizens of Thailand, much less providing a vote or democracy in any form in the country. But they will kiss the butt of the people who gave them their jobs - the monarchy.

When the International Criminal Court and the representatives of the UN showed up, the Thai judiciary said thank you very much, we have no interest in cooperating with you. Have a nice day, goodbye.

So the International Criminal Court representatives left Thailand and they have not been back since.

The lesson is this. If you can corrupt the judiciary of a nation state, you have free rein to terrorize, butcher and murder its citizens. And just get away with anything you can imagine. And the International Criminal Court cannot touch you. Is that clear?

~~~~~~

Now let's also talk about the case where my students were being illegally and

relentlessly beaten by the teachers in my school. This was Photisamphan School.

I filed human rights complaints with three human rights organizations in Asia, including UNESCO in Bangkok which is the United Nations Center in Thailand.

They basically ignored me. I have not ever heard any response from them regarding this, because they know what the deal is. They're not gonna mess with these brutal people in Thailand.

That's why the International Criminal Court and the UN are useless in Thailand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 7 - Western Media's Atrocious Record On Thailand Today we're going to talk about how the liberal American media did in regards to reporting on the military coup in Thailand in 2014.

We'll start with Counterpunch, which was Alexander Cockburn's paper before he died. After his death, Jeffrey Sinclair took over. And Sinclair hired this loudmouth clickbait guy named Draitser.

And Draitser copied all of his clickbait schtick from a headless fake account in Thailand called Tony Cartalucci.

Counterpunch completely parotted the Sell-out, pro business, pro monarchist, anti worker lines from Cartalucci.

Pretending like US foreign policy is primarily run by The National Endowment For Democracy. That Thaksin and Yingluck were tools of “Wall Street”. And that the brutal murderous Thai military, which never supported workers’ rights ever in history, was now the savior of the Thai working class.

It was pure puffed up buffoonery with no basis in history or rationality. But Sinclair and Counterpunch bought the right wing fantasy hook line and sinker. Like a bunch of lazy arse, clueless chumps.

And so noted leftist Alexander Cockburn’s paper fully supported a deadly fascist, pro business, anti democratic military coup in Thailand in 2014. Which helped obliterate the aspirations of the Thai working class.

The Counterpunch claim was that a military coup was going to fix all of the neoliberal problems and liberate the country from the tyranny of Yingluck Shinawatra.

All that is absolutely laughable if you know even a few basic facts about Thailand and the Thai economy.

How did Counterpunch’s coup “fix” Thailand’s problems? They've canceled all of the elections in Thailand. They've put kids in jail for making a theater play and acting a theater play. They've terrorized anybody who opposes the military coup and put them in jail, sometimes for 40 or 50 years.

One particularly brave young democracy activist named Jah New, had his mother charged with insulting the monarchy for saying the word “yes” on a blog comment.

So does Counterpunch or Sinclair, or Driatser have anything to say about any of that now? No. Nothing. Crickets. Total silence and down the memory hole.

Mission accomplished.

They never even published any follow-ups. Not from the Thai press. Not from anybody. Anyone who lived in Thailand knows that the line that came out of so-called leftist Counterpunch is complete crap and completely wrong.

I might also add that Draitser went on Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz's Facebook page and spewed this line about how the military coup was gonna be absolutely great. And Ortiz hasn't said anything since.

(Ward Churchill turns out to be rather more correct than not about her).

Next let's talk about Global Research out of Canada. They did great anti-war work against the Bush administration. But when it came to Thailand they were completely wrong.

They actually published some of the pro fascist articles by Cartalucci. Making money off of vulgar right wing clickbait. And has Global Research gone back and done a retraction or done a follow-up? No. They don’t care. There is no ad revenue for them in real journalism now.

The third is Western outlet is Truthout, which also did great work against Bush in the 00s. However in 2014, they ran an editorial from a mysterious pro fascist writer named Michael Perch.

A guy who nobody has ever seen or heard from since that article. Nobody knows who Michael Perch is. Truthout just received whatever article from anybody. Who knows where they got this article. Who knows if they got paid to run the article. But they decided to run it. And it was in full support of the monarchy, the military coup and the ultra right wing political interests of Thailand.

Truthout has not since run any retractions and has done no follow-ups. So too bad. Maybe they will change their name to “We Publish WTF Out”.

Now let's move on to Angry Indian, Abiyomi Kofi and his “AfroIndio Times” . He is a black guy of partial indigenous heritage in Oregon, who does radical analysis.

He's usually pretty good about a lot of things in America. But as soon as he got a hold of Cartalucci, he got suckered in and enthralled with the BS. And went off in full support of the military coup in Thailand.

I had a back-and-forth with Angry Indian on Twitter trying to explain the situation. But he had somehow fallen in love with this Cartalucci headless account. He never backed down in support of the military coup.

He didn't follow up. But he did do an entire 30 minute podcast rant against me personally. It’s available here

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/77562

Let's continue. Jacob Appelbaum was the inventor of the Tor network. Tor so-called

privacy network for online browsing. And what Tor is supposed to be about is to provide anonymity for third-world movements who are living under hostile and repressive regimes.

So coincidentally when Jacob Appelbaum went to Thailand for his ‘diving vacation’, he just reads the reactionary Bangkok Post and the openly fascist Nation newspaper and Applebaum comes out on Twitter and he says something to the effect that ‘they're having a revolution in Thailand.’ And he hopes that the Thais can be successful in their revolution.

The guy who invented Tor to assist 3rd world democracy movements just called a brutal murderous, anti democratic, fascist military coup “a revolution”. And he wished them well.

It’s not a revolution, it's a fascist military coup you brain dead moron.

Did Jacob Appelbaum follow up or make any retractions about that?

No. But he got accused of sexual harassment shortly after that.

Huffington Post published an article by Michael Hughes which supported the Military Coup.

Finally there is Corey Morningstar who tries to be an “environmental journalist.” I believe she’s in Canada. And she's big in with this Guy McPherson crowd.

And it turns out that Corey Morningstar is a big fan of Tony Cartalucci. Surprise. As are a bunch of these McPherson guys. They love to go on counterpunch and grandstand. And they love Draitser.

I can’t stand them.

So I was talking with these people in 2014, And Corey Morningstar said she heard something different from her buddy Cartalucci.

She asked me to outline my information point by point, like a graduate school dissertation, and go over it, and explain it to her like she’s a Golden Retriever.

So I did that. I gave about 15 reasons why Cartalucci was wrong directly to her. And I got no response from her. No follow-up. No

reaction. No retraction. She was too in love with Cartalucci to face reality.

That's the Western liberal press on Thailand in 2014. I think they made fools of themselves. A complete and total embarrassment. Absolutely appalling for their credibility. And this is part of the reason they are dying.

Counterpunch later fell off a catastrophic cliff with their Alexa ratings.

And why not? I don't think anybody can take these people seriously now. Pretending to be left wing news and getting mega scammed by right wing imperialist propaganda.

On the other hand, who in The West got it right? Let's talk about four people who did in fact get it right.

Steve Herman who was at the time The Voice of America correspondent in Bangkok. He was the only journalist from a western country who went and actually interviewed the political opposition to the coup.

Herman deserves huge, major, radical props for that. When everybody was getting threatened with death and backing down, refusing to run any stories (guys like Jonathan Head at the BBC wouldn't touch any of it. Wouldn't go anywhere near opposition to the coup), Herman was in there and interviewing the opposition and publishing stories about it. So he deserves props.

Another Western journalist who did good work was Lizzie Presser writing for Al Jazeera. She wrote one good article where she went to Isaan and interviewed people up there who were attacked by the military. She published claims from Isaan people who were having their houses broken into and having their property smashed up. So she's the only other Western journalist with any courage who reported on the coup.

I wish she would report more.

Another great reporter is the late Andrew Viltcheck who was a Russian journalist. He was an independent radical Journalist. And a very good one. He deserves huge props because he flew into Bangkok to cover the protests leading up to the military coup.

And straight out in his very first article, he committed lese majeste, or insulted the monarchy.

But nobody in Thailand even read his article. So he didn't get any pushback. He was never in trouble for telling the truth. I still think nobody read that article but it was great and truthful reporting.

The last one who got a right is of course Giles Ungpakorn. He's a professor from Thailand now working in England. He’s got a great blog called Ugly Truth Thailand https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com/ where he pulls no punches and holds back nothing.

Ungpakorn proved to be the most consistently on-the-ball, the most complete, and most completely correct analysis of anybody on Thailand in the entire world.

So he deserves huge and amazing props for that kind of work.

The liberal, so called posturing left wing US and Western media is mostly worthless in regards to Thailand.

Chapter 8 - Why Jay-Z And Beyonce Are Full Of It. This is why I really do not like Jay-z or Beyonce.

In 2013, November and December, there were the beginnings of a military coup taking place against the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra, first woman Prime Minister of Thailand.

And at this time, maybe December or January of that period, there was a big media circus about Jay-z and Beyonce going for holiday to Phuket in southern Thailand.

Phuket is the political base of the ultra right-wing that always consistently supports the military coups and the monarchy.

Phuket is also notorious for being a center of human trafficking and slavery.

Slavery. Actual modern day slavery. Which has been pointed out multiple times by UK labor activist Andy Hall. He has been working in Thailand for years and has been attacked with legal suits charging him with defamation which he has consistently won.

S-L-A-V-E-R-Y. Actual and real documented modern slavery. Right in southern Thailand.

So Beyonce and Jay-z, ADOS (American Descendants of Slavery) show up in the middle of Slavery in Thailand.

And everybody in the media is like ~oh isn’t it so great?~ Jay-z he's got money and bling. Wow. And Beyonce, oh she's a queen. Such great representatives of ADOS black America. Blah Blah Blah.

And what are they doing? They're vacationing in the center of slavery in Thailand. Right there and Phuket.

On top of that they're going to these big rich hotels and they're just exploiting the local people who have been denied the right to vote. Dr. King would be proud, no?

How does that actually look once you step back from the endless media fawning?

Ratchet and disgusting. Best case is they're just absolutely clueless.

Wandering around like a bunch of imbeciles unable to understand where they are, what is going on, or what they are doing.

I never heard anything from them at the time or since. Slavery is not on their agenda.

This is a pattern of Western artists who go to Thailand to perform to make money and don't care where they are or what's going on.

That's why I really have very little respect for Jay-z or Beyonce.

And when people are out here giving them props, I just have to think they're giving props to somebody who doesn't actually give a damn about their own history, slavery, human trafficking or democracy.

And they have absolutely no principles as to who they are, where they came from, or what they're doing. Just pay us and STFU.

If that's your gig, that’s your gig. But it’s disgusting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 9 - Why Thai students Are Ritually Beaten. Ask any student in Thailand and they will tell you that corporal punishment is out of control.

I want to try to answer why it happens and why no one does anything about it.

The best answer that I can come up with is that it is tolerated and enabled because it destroys the students self-esteem, destroys the student's autonomy, destroys the students capacity for creative thought and action, and it makes them excellent subjects of the monarchy and the military.

It is also against statutory Thai law.

I complained about my students getting illegally beaten by their teachers at Photisamphan school in Pattaya and I was fired for it.

I want to say that I do not have any guilt about what I did or how I acted upon witnessing this.

I do not subscribe to cultural relativism. I am a proponent of universal standards.

I have no regrets at all because I can tell you that following my firing for complaining about abuse of my students, I received reports from my former students about

teachers at my school, who supported the military coup and who hated Yingluck as the elected prime minister, who would use the classroom to submit their students to ultra right wing, anti democratic propaganda in favor of the military coup.

The students were a captive audience.

I don't have any regrets at all because they wanted to impose upon me openly political double standards which they impose across the society.

They want to allow the abusive reactionary ultra right-wing to just run the field with no opposing view presented to students.

They want to censor and banish, or outright murder, lynch and terrorize anybody who disagrees with them. So I don't have any regrets at all. None. Zero. You can sue me.

I want to talk about the influences on me that led me to act as I did.

These would be three educators and writers.

Alice Miller, Arthur Silber and Alfie Kohn.

Arthur Silber has a blog called “ThePowerOfNarrative”. Alfie Kohn is a famous American researcher and writer on education. These two helped shape my philosophy of teaching.

But who I want to focus on is Alice Miller. She is the 20th century psychologist who wrote the books “For Your Own Good” and “Drama Of The Gifted Child”, among others.

When I was fired I was told it was because I was a bad teacher. Except when I was fired they spent most of my exit interview explaining to me why illegally beating the crap out of students is “Thai Culture”.

I want to address this claim in three items which I believe support my conclusion that the rampant abuse of students is intended to create pliant, demoralized subjects of the monarchy. And non complaining victims of the Military.

First I'm going to talk about a quote from Alice Miller called “What is hatred.”

Miller says: Unfortunately adult abuse victims have methods at their disposal for denying the violence done to them in youth and taking that violence out on others with sophisticated ideological justifications.

“They can even contrive to pass it off as a good thing. The less inclination they show to recognize and revise this ingenious self delusion, the more likely it is that others will be made to suffer the consequences.

And it is this that ultimately confronts us with the apparent paradox of a nice well-behaved child consummately skilled and living up to the adults expectations, and never voicing any criticism of them, ending up thirty years later as a commandant in Auschwitz or as Adolf Eichmann.”

I think that perfectly describes the dictator of Thailand right now, Prayuth. And probably a lot of the people who work for him and support him.

Next we want to talk about the Helping Witness. A Helping Witness is someone who helps the abused child.This is what Miller says is the purpose of helping witness is from the book called “For Your Own Good: hidden cruelty in child rearing and the roots of violence.”

Miller says:

“helping witnesses give sympathy and affection to these beaten or neglected children. They trust the children and help them feel that they are not bad or evil but worthy of kindness from others.

Thanks to such witnesses, who may be completely oblivious to the role they are playing, children in difficult situations can see that there is such a thing as love in this world. In the best cases they learn how to develop trust in their fellow humans and to accept the love and kindness that comes their way.

In the total absence of helping witnesses, these children glorified the violence they have been subjected to and frequently make blatant use of it in later life.”

I would say that's a perfect description of what the woman who fired me called “Thai Culture.” And you can see citations online going back decades if not hundreds of years in the Thai education system of teachers beating the crap out of students. That is the underlying meaning of so-called Thai culture in this context.

Finally I want to go out with this. This concept called poisonous pedagogy. Also from Miller's book called “For Your Own Good.”

These are 11 points which she says are fundamental in poisonous pedagogy. If you look at them I think they're very close to the

systematic implementation of what passes for Education in Thailand right now.

It is the part of poisonous pedagogy to impart to the child from the beginning false information and false beliefs that have been passed on from generation to generation and dutifully accepted by the young, even though they are not only unproven, but are demonstrably false.

The eleven examples are

1. a feeling of Duty produces love

2. hatred can be done away with by forbidding it

3. parents deserve respect simply because they are parents

4. children are undeserving of respect simply because they are children

5. obedience makes a child strong

6. a high degree of self-esteem is harmful

7. a low degree of self-esteem makes a person altruistic

8. tenderness and doting are harmful

9. responding to a child's needs is wrong

10. severity and coldness are good preparations for life

11. the pretense of gratitude is better than honest ingratitude.

That in a nutshell is modern education and

“Thai Culture” in the Land of Smiles.

Thank you for your consideration.

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

― Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The end. Memes, articles and other information related to this book available here http://threeyearsofpolitics.blogspot.com/

Thank you for reading our book from Walking The Ceiling Publishing. Comments, Corrections, Suggestions, Edits. Please contact [email protected] WE WILL NOT BE SILENT IN THAILAND We Will Not Be Silent In Thailand

Rak Mak How Abuse Of Thai Students Supports Military Fascism and Monarchy

“Revolt gives life its value.” - Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

© 2023 by Tom Huck, Wesley Gibbs and Walking The Ceiling Publishing

The ultimate fascism is child abuse. Its victims are Prisoners of War without a Geneva Convention to protect them, hostages to terrorism. As in all concentration camps, some prisoners imitate the oppressors. No surprise that the uninterrupted transgenerational abuse of children produces the most fervent followers of fascism. And make no mistake, most fascists are followers—violent sheep “led” by a handful of profiteers. What is there to say about a belief system which, carried to its logical conclusion, worships degeneracy? …it is easy to understand the fascist tolerance of all forms of child abuse. And that truth compels another: Righteous war against oppressors of humanity is the highest calling of our species… Fascism is the politics of the sociopath. It cannot be combated by reasoned debate. The liberal seeks the “hearts and minds'' of the electorate, while the fascist laughs behind his predator’s mask, disdaining the very concept of self-determination. But we must never imitate the oppressor, for then we become him…. Our course is clear. If we truly want to halt the poisonous blooms of fascism, we must start at its root. If we don’t act to save the children, we cannot save ourselves. by Andrew Vachss, 1996

Human Rights Watch Many children who have been subjected to hitting, paddling or other harsh disciplinary practices have reported subsequent problems with depression, fear and anger. These students frequently withdraw from school activities and disengage academically. The Society for Adolescent Medicine has found that victims of corporal punishment often develop “deteriorating peer relationships, difficulty with concentration, lowered school achievement, antisocial behavior, intense dislike of authority, somatic complaints, a tendency for school avoidance and school drop-out, and other evidence of negative high-risk adolescent behavior.” More than 150 studies included in the review of research on the effects of corporal punishment show associations between corporal punishment and a wide range of negative outcomes, including: direct physical harm, negative impacts on mental and physical health, poor moral internalization, increased aggression in children, increased perpetration and experience of violence in adults, poor cognitive development, damaged family relationships

Introduction - August 10, 2013 The law in Thailand says that hitting students is illegal at all times and under all circumstances. 100% illegal. This was confirmed by me with a call to the Ministry of Education in Bangkok. As well as a trip to the local police station. So this means that if you are seeing it happen, you are witnessing a crime. Please keep that in mind. When people advocate it, they are advocating what is criminal activity according to Thai law. Not just that, but every academic study relevant to the matter shows that the fallout is catastrophic and sometimes severe. If you take seriously the education of Thai students, I don’t see how this could be made light of or joked about in any way. I say this because it is evolving into a plague at my school – with Thai teachers basically beating the kids daily, almost indiscriminately, and creating an atmosphere of outright terror for the students. So much so that some students jump the walls and run away to avoid school all together. So much so that I’ve tried to turn my classroom into a safety zone where students know they won’t be physically hurt or intimidated. It hasn’t helped the grades, test scores, behavior or study habits either. My assistant supervisor made a joke in a staff meeting about hitting kids and my direct supervisor was present and didn’t say anything and kind of laughed along. This may seem innocuous to some, but, since I have taken time to look at the research, it fills me with dread and terror. Dealing with kids who are constantly beaten by teachers on a daily basis makes my job and life a living hell. I find it deeply disturbing and it is tearing me up emotionally. ~~~ In brief, the law is very simple. It is illegal for any employee at a school, including teachers and directors, to apply any form of corporal punishment on any child.

The ONLY punishments allowed by law are: 1. Verbal reprimand 2. Exclusion from Class 3. Exclusion from School.

it is NOT possible for 1. Schools to make agreements with students or parents. 2. Individual schools to opt out of the law. 3. To claim flexibility on the law – it is just as illegal to hit soft as it is to hit hard.

In other words the law is there to protect ALL children in ALL schools equally, and this applies to both government and private schools.

The Legal Regulations Corporal punishment is unlawful in schools under the Ministry of Education Regulation on Student Punishment (2005) and the National Committee on Child Protection Regulation on Working Procedures of Child Protection Officers Involved in Promoting Behavior of Students (2005), pursuant to article 65 of the Child Protection Act. This was further endorsed in January 2011 when the Minister of Education AND the Prime Minister stated clearly, in interview, that striking children for any reason was illegal and unacceptable and that teachers would be punished accordingly if caught. Ministry of Education Rules also state: “Any school employee who hits a child should be immediately dismissed and be subject to review of their professional license”

Advice for Parents If any school employee hits your child you have the right to file a complaint with the police. It is 100% illegal for any school employee to use ANY form of corporal punishment on children.

Chapter 1 Part 1 - Culture As Abuse Abuse in Thailand’s schools In Service To Military Fascism Today I am gonna talk about a very difficult subject, which is child abuse of students in Thailand schools. And this is very difficult for me to talk about. I was a teacher in Thailand around 2011. I got a hold of Paul Friere's book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” as well as Bell Hook's book, “Teaching to Transgress.” And these books greatly improved my outlook towards teaching. I was very involved in the classroom with the students. Everything was going great. I taught at Photisamphan Pittayakarn Buddhist High School in Pattaya for one full year. I got good reviews and my contract was renewed for a second year. Everything seemed totally normal. Then the madness descended. One morning when I was on a coffee break in the cafeteria, I saw these at the front gate. These girls came in late. I believe they were M three, maybe M two, M three these are like 13 year old girls. they came in late and I saw some old man, like in his middle age, late, mid middle age, who beat them with a stick when they came late to the school. It was absolutely shocking to me. Absolutely. I couldn't believe what I had seen. So a few days later, I saw it again, and I saw it again, and it started to really disturb me. And, I started to take my coffee breaks up there to see what was happening. What I saw was them beating up these little kids, you know, 13 year olds and younger. And so then this terroristic assault on students just started spreading. It infected the minds of the teachers and became like a plague in this school. It was just going around everywhere.

And I started seeing it, for example in the classrooms. Because it’s hot and there is no AC, there are no doors to the classrooms and you can look in and just see people being beaten constantly in the classrooms. One day I was just walking across the campus, and I saw one girl getting beaten like 20 times in the courtyard by this teacher. In front of everyone, and students were terrified, walking past this right next to me and it seemed like I was in a horror movie. So I asked my students about it. And some of the boys said sometimes they would get beat or they would get caned 30 times for not having their homework. It all seemed a little excessive to me. Like it was getting way out of hand. I also saw one of the PE teachers do this.One of the students was late, ONE student, and so she beat everybody in the whole class as they walked into the classroom. Every single student, because one student was late. Absolutely horrifying really to see that. And it can also be traumatic to witness that kind of physical aggression and violence. Later, I was in a class with some, some M5 students. And these were like the special English program students. And so in that class, during the class time, we called the Secretary of Education of Thailand in Bangkok. This was Yingluck Shiniwatra's secretary of Education, Chaturon Chaisang . And this guy that we called during my class, later during the 2014 coup, he got kidnapped and beat up by soldiers,. And so, we had one of the students call and speak to his office in Thai language, and ask them if it was legal for the teachers to beat the students. And that office confirmed that it was illegal to beat students in Thai schools. And I went and looked up the law. And the law says that if a teacher beats the students, they should immediately be taken out of their class, out of the classroom, not allowed to teach further, and have their contract put under review.

But that never happens. That kind of thing. Never, ever happens. I mean, nobody, no teacher ever gets disciplined in that way. Even though that's the law that's on the books. So, back to my school, this reign of terror of physically assaulting students just continued. It went on and on like a nightmare. And it was very depressing, very demoralizing really. I talked to some of the other foreign teachers in that school. None of them would help me try to oppose this bizarre transformation of the school into a culture of abuse. None of them, four British and one Australian, were interested in making waves causing trouble to make any of the administration upset or anything like that. So it was a bad situation for me. In desperation, I found the English translation of the Thai law that was on the statutory books, about how it was illegal for any teacher to beat the students, and how the teachers should lose their job if they do that. I took this into my M 5 classroom. I asked them to translate this section into Thai language. And so we did that in class as part of their English practice. I put their translation together. I made a PDF pamphlet flyer. I made Xerox copies on my own dime. I might have done a few copies on the school xerox machine if I remember correctly. I handed these papers out to every class. I gave a copy to every student in every class. And I had about 800 students at that time from M2 up to M6. And I took the important sections from the flyer - about how it was illegal for teachers to beat students - and had one of the students in each class write out the phrase in Thai language and in English. And then I had the class repeat out loud, in unison, and at volume, the words that were on the board in Thai.

These classrooms had no air conditioning and no no front door. So what the students were saying, just wafted out into the courtyard, and into the rest of the school so that everybody could hear it. Everybody. Okay? So that's what I did, because nobody would help me with my situation. Nobody. Judge TF out of me, I DNGAF. So I got called up for review, and they said “we're gonna fire you.” The administration told me they're gonna fire me, which I fully expected. And as you might imagine, none of the British or Australian foreign teachers stood by me. They cut me out to sea. All of them cowards and Bloody Limey Bastards. None of the Thai teachers stood by me either. Nobody. I'm out there on my own, hanging by fingernails out on a limb. Okay? So my choice is either shut up and endure this endless traumatic horror that fell over this school, or do this. So WTF would you do? That’s a question for you to answer yourself. So, I already know I am going to be fired, so I took what evidence I had to the police station in Banglamung. And turns out the police wouldn't do anything either, nothing. Even though this is statutorily illegal and on the books. So while I was at the police station, this may be of interest and relevant, one of the visiting European police officers who spoke English, told me incidentally, that he was kind of amazed that no domestic violence calls were ever answered in this office. Okay, I'll leave that there. Next, I took my documented evidence and my story to the three local newspapers in Pattaya. None of them would touch it. None of them would go near it. Specifically there was only one newspaper where I got in the door. This was Pattaya Mail, an English paper. The front desk was staffed by a Thai national. I brought the story to this guy in his office. And I explained the situation to him. He said he thought it was a critical and important story. His words. I got the impression he suffered this form of abuse and wanted it to stop. He told he would take it to the editor, who was an American. And ask the editor to run the story.

So the editor, Mr. Daniel M Dorothy, came back to me by email and said that my evidence was “libel”. Basically, “We can't run this because it's libel”. So he wasn't interested at all in that story. Thanks Dan. Good American enabler. I also went to a lawyer, a Thai national, and attorney in Pattaya. And she said that any such case was going to have to be a civil case. That we would have to take it to the civil court, and the student, or the victim, would have to testify against the perpetrator, which is the teacher. If you have any idea about Thailand and Thai culture, that would be nearly impossible to happen. To get a student to go into a courtroom and accuse their teacher of illegally beating them. At least, at least at that time in 2013 this was the situation. Maybe now, ten years later, it's starting to break open a little bit. But at that time, forget it, nothing. I also took the complaint to the mayor of Pattaya, who was a big Chonburi Province gangster. Unbeknownst to me at that time. Of course, his office wouldn't touch it. Wouldn't do anything. So at this point, I decided to write formal complaints to three human rights organizations. ASEAN that's in Jakarta; the Asian Human Rights Commission, which is in Hong Kong; and also the UNESCO office, which is in the United Nations office in Bangkok. So I sent registered letters with all the evidence, the entire story, to each of these three outfits. And so I got the notification that three separate people signed for these documents in each place. And I never heard a word in response. Not a word, from one person. This might just give you an idea about the scale of what you would be up against if you're gonna start complaining about laws that are on the books regarding child abuse. This is what happened to me. So anyway I got fired from the job at Photisamphan. They let me go. And they told me when they fired me that I was gonna be put on a blacklist, and that I would never be able to work at a Thailand school again. Thanks a lot.

After that, I wanted to prove to myself and prove to my students that the blacklist was BS and that all these people couldn't get to me; that all of them together couldn't break me. And so I finally did get another teaching job, working in Maptaphut, near Rayong. And finally I got a job back in Pattaya, a really good computer teacher job. And worked there for two years. And I also worked up in Chonburi at a prestigious public school there. So I proved to my students that the administration and the education department could not get to me. They couldn’t blacklist me to cover up their terror campaign. But in any case, it's a horrifying and depressingly brutal situation. It was very difficult for me to get through it. And very hard on me psychologically. Finally, the conclusion of the story is, the most amazing thing happened. Shortly after they fired me, there was a big thunderstorm, a lightning storm over Pattaya and Nakluah. And in this school, Photisamphan, there was a giant statue in the central courtyard of the founder of the school, Luang Pho Boonmee Akkaboonyo, who's a Buddhist monk. So in the middle of the courtyard is this statue of this old Buddhist monk. And of course, Thailand, everybody reveres it. They'll all wai the statue. Which is to put hands together in a praying gesture and point towards the statue as they walk past this statue. So what happened on this night of the big lightning and thunderstorm, This is about three days or less after I got fired from this school, a big bolt of lightning came down, and hit the huge tree near this statue. The tree fell down, and crashed right on to the statue. Toppled the statue over, and knocked the head off of the statue. It also crushed the pavilion behind the statue. It was amazing. I mean you know, a lot of people in Thailand are, they're kind of superstitious about things like that. And if anything that was total justice. Everyone who messed with me throughout this ordeal could not help but think that it was a divine message that they totally fucked with the primal forces of nature by doing everyting they did.

I could not have asked for a more fitting end to the situation. But the abuse of students is a horrible plague in Thailand. In the Thai press, now you'll hear of students getting severely attacked. One girl had nerve damage to her face. I mean, this girl was like 14 or 15 years old, and had a teacher throw a ceramic cup at her face, causing nerve damage to her face. Another boy got severely beaten for having the wrong pair of shoes. It's unbelievable. If you ask any Thai student, they'll tell you that all this is absolutely true. And it's an awful situation. So that's all I can talk about right now. I just wanna make people aware of this story.

Part 2 - Ideology of Abuse Why does extensive abuse of students in Thailand schools happen? And why does no one do anything about it? The best answer that I can come up with is that it is tolerated and enabled because it destroys the students self-esteem, destroys the student's autonomy and destroys the students capacity for creative thought in action. And it makes them excellent subjects of the monarchy and its military governments. I want to say that I don't have any guilt about what I did or how I acted when I was a teacher in Thailand witnessing this. And I have no regrets at all because I can tell you that, following my firing for complaining about abuse of my students, I received notice about teachers in my school who, in their classrooms, openly supported the military coup of 2014, teachers who hated Yingluck as the elected prime minister. And many of the young women in my classes were very happy to have a woman as elected Prime Minister of Thailand. It was very aspirational and a positive development for them. But after I was fired, many of these teachers would - in their classroom - use the classroom to submit their students, like a captive audience, to ultra right wing political propaganda Giving them endless talking points and lectures in favor of the military coup. And the administration did nothing about it. And so I don't have any regrets at all about supporting the students, and not going along with the right wing, pro-military BS, because the administration and abusive teachers wanted to impose on me the same double standards for everything which they impose across the society.

They want to allow the abusive reactionary ultra right-wing to just run the field. And they want to censor and banish or or outright kill, lynch and terrorize anybody who disagrees with them. (As outlined in the previous chapter, the Thai right wing, and many of their Western slug apologist, want to label this kind of abusive reactionary terror to be “Thai Culture” - in order to absolve themselves of their crimes against Thai children.) So, no, I don't have any regrets at all. And on behalf of sanity and democracy, they can all twist on it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I want to mention the primary influences on me that led me to act as I did. These would be three educators and writers. Alice Miller, Arthur Silber and Alfie Kohn. You can look them up. Arthur Silver has a blog called the power of narrative. http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/ with very good analysis. Alfie Kohn is a famous American education researcher. https://www.alfiekohn.org/ https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alfie+kohn Alice Miller is a psychologist and writer. And specifically. Here, I want to address several concepts that Alice Miller wrote about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ When I was fired from Photisamphan school in Pattaya, I was told I was “let go” because I was a bad teacher. Except, at the meeting when I was fired, they spent

more than half the outgoing interview explaining why beating the crap out of students is quote “Thai culture.” They did not really say anything bad about any teaching. Because frankly, there was nothing bad to say about it. In fact, all my official reviews at that school were top notch. So I want to address this claim about “Thai culture” in three things that I believe support my conclusion that the rampant abuse of students is intended to create pliant subjects of the monarchy and non-complaining victims of the military. First I'm going to talk about a quote from Alice Miller called ‘what is hatred’. Miller says: “Unfortunately adults have methods at their disposal for denying the violence done to them in youth and taking that violence out on others with sophisticated ideological justifications they can even contrive to pass it off as a good thing. The less inclination they show to recognize and revise this ingenious self delusion the more likely it is that others will be made to suffer the consequences and it is this that ultimately confronts us with the apparent paradox of a nice well-behaved child consummately skilled and living up to the adults expectations and never voicing any criticism of them ending up thirty years later as a commandant in Auschwitz or as Adolf Eichmann.” I think that sentiment perfectly describes the military dictator of Thailand right now, Generalissimo Prayuth, as well as probably a lot of the people who work for him, support him and enable him. Next we want to talk about Alice Miller’s idea of the “helping witness.” This is someone who helps the child who is suffering abuse.

From the book called “For Your Own Good: hidden cruelty in child rearing and the roots of violence,” Miller says “Helping witnesses give sympathy and affection to these beaten or neglected children. They trust the children and help them feel that they are not bad or evil but worthy of kindness from others Thanks to such witnesses who may be completely oblivious to the role they are playing children in difficult situations can see that there is such a thing as love in this world in the best cases they learn how to develop trust in their fellow humans and to accept the love and kindness that comes their way In the total absence of the helping witnesses these children glorified the violence they have been subjected to and frequently make blatant use of it in later life.” I would say that's a perfect description of what the woman who fired me called “Thai culture.” and you can see citations going back decades if not hundreds of years in the Thai education system of teachers beating the crap out of students. And in effect, that is the manufactured “culture” used to prop up the military and the monarchy for years if not centuries. Finally I wanted to talk about this concept called poisonous pedagogy, also from Miller's book called “For Your Own Good”. The purpose of poisonous pedagogy is “to impart to the child from the beginning, false information, and false beliefs that have been passed on from generation to generation and dutifully accepted by the young even though they are not only unproven but are demonstrable a false And if you look at them I think they're very close to the systematic implementation of Education in Thailand right now.

Now let's take a look at the eleven examples of these poisonous pedagogy beliefs They are : 1. A feeling of Duty produces love 2. Hatred can be done away with by forbidding it 3. Parents deserve respect simply because they are parents 4. Children are undeserving of respect simply because they are children 5. Obedience makes a child strong. 6. A high degree of self-esteem is harmful 7. A low degree of self-esteem makes a person altruistic 8. Tenderness and doting are harmful 9. Responding to a child's needs is wrong 10. Severity and coolness are good preparations for life 11. Pretense of gratitude is better than honest ingratitude Ask any teacher or student working in The Land of Smiles, and they should confirm that this is the program. Top to bottom. Thank you for your consideration. And have a nice day.

Chapter 2 The Descent Into Hell Record of Abuse: 24 July witness girls caned at front gate for arriving after 8:30am 29 July Witness boy caned in the genitals by Teacher Y 31 July – Students caned coming late at the front gate. 31 July – 5 minutes later, witness from outside a classroom, Teacher L canes 2 M5 boy students in her class (my former students – intelligent, well-behaved, not criminals). Girls in the classroom look out at me in horror and frustration. 1 Aug - PE teacher, who conducts homeroom in front courtyard beats students outside. 2 August - Assistant supervisor A jokes about using a pointer to “hit students” in front of the department supervisor who says nothing. 13 August – See teacher N, PE teacher, hitting every student in her class on the back with a stick. Collective punishment. Very sickening. Other students claim she is “crazy”. Another foreign teacher reports that his class is intimidated by her. 16 August - See my supervisor who hired me stop class, walk into the office, pick up a switch, flex it and walk back into the classroom to strike a boy. 29 August – Unknown male teacher canes girl in the basketball court morning assembly for not having homework. 29 August – A teacher in the office next to my classroom approaches one of my students with a stick. Pulls him away by the collar. I follow. She sits him down on the floor and menaces him with the stick but doesn’t hit him. Later I find out from other students that his offense was dancing in ~my~ class. And apparently this teacher thinks that dancing in school is criminal behavior and so felt justified to beat the kid.

29 August – Today a young girl , a student of mine, 13 years old, came up to me to ask about the law on teachers hitting students. I told her that it is in fact always illegal. She told me that when she didn’t bring her homework on Monday morning, her teacher hit her 20 times with a cane. She also said that another teacher hit her on the face with a cane when she didn’t “wai” or show respect to the teacher. I told her to tell her mom and dad that it is illegal for the teachers to hit. She told me that her parents hit her too and wouldn’t help her. … What the honest to god would you do dear reader? In another class, I told them what the girl had told me and they said that yes, this kind of thing happened to them too. One girl told me that the TV commentary “always complains about how students must maintain order and they don’t know how to control themselves, therefore they need to be hit with a cane.” A boy in another class told me that sometimes his teacher hit him 30 times or more when he didn’t bring his homework. A Canadian kid who was caught with drugs in Singapore was sentenced to 3 lashes with a cane. Three. These kids at my school are suffering 20-30 lashes for not producing a piece of paper with their scribbles. I should also note that the teachers who are enforcing this kind of abusive regime on the students mostly flat out suck rotten eggs as teachers. The exam grades are outright appalling. The English test from my Thai national co-teacher resulted in an 80% failure rate. Another teacher from England reviewed the test from his co-teacher and found that about 2/3 of the questions were unanswerable, that there was more than one correct answer or no correct answer at all. That teacher from England told me that the kids can’t win. They are in something like a work camp or a detention center or a re-education camp – not a school in the regular sense. I told some of my students that it seems like the purpose of their “education” is to learn how to sit down, form nice orderly lines and shut up. That’s all. Everything else is just window dressing. Students who “can’t control themselves” actually means “Students who don’t want or haven’t learned to take orders from incompetent half-wits and fools.” 4 September – Female PE teacher canes boy in the front courtyard – in front of the policeman who is apparently there just for show. I confront her. Tell her the law. She says she did not hurt the boy. I said I called Ministry of Education and the

police and both said that hitting students is illegal, always, 100% of the time. I asked if she wants me to hit her, she says no. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Discussions with students 2 September – Monday – Talk to 13 year old boy students about not hitting. He says “Not Good” — “Teacher hit students not good.” We have a few minutes discussion among several boys and I believe they feel empowered by knowing the law, and show a more positive outlook. 4 Sep – I show a broken cane stick in front of students (not mine) and say that the law says that hitting students is wrong. One boy reaches over and pops another boy in the head, and the whole table of boys reach out to pull that boy’s hand away and say “Whoa. No. Mai Ao. Don’t want that. Cannot.” I want to cry. Very Great. Talking to kids and not hitting them is the absolute best of education. I never had so much success in 10 years of trying.

August 24, 2013 Recently I have been trying to stop teachers from illegally hitting and beating kids in my school. I looked online for support from foreign teachers working in the country and this is what came back: “Quit”, “Leave”, “I have no problem with it”, “Don’t do it”, “Go back to your country”…. So I sent my complaint to the police and the Board of Education….and then guess what came back online from the other foreign teachers?: “Now you’re going to be physically attacked”, “You’ll probably end up in prison”, “Stupid move”, “These people like to do things different from you”, “Thinking with the heart and not the head”, “Leave the city and province – run for your life”, “This is not San Francisco”, “The stupidest thing you could do.” And on and on. Not a single teacher, admin or anyone else said do it, offered support or said ‘protect the kids’ or ‘go for it’ – not one. Zero. None. Makes you wonder why these

people want to work as teachers in Thailand in the first place. Probably because they want to prey on children. These foreign teachers in Thailand are crazy. So now this is going to play out. Cheers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only question now is “won’t end well” for who? Probably not me. I’ll be fine. I saw the school start to cane the kids when they were coming to school late…even if their parents were caught in traffic or other non-related home issues. I saw one teacher smacking kids randomly with a ruler – even kids sitting there not doing anything. I saw my supervisor hitting kids in her class and the assistant supervisor making a joke about hitting kids in a meeting. Saw one of my co-teachers beating two boys lying prone on the ground while their class looked on in fear and horror. I asked for help on the foreign teacher’s board and got none. Nothing. Only insults and threats. I saw kids jumping over the wall and running away from the school. I saw one teacher caning a boy in the groin and another caning all the kids in a class because 1 student was late – this was a decent competent well-behaved class I taught last year – So I went to the cops. Corporal punishment is illegal in Thailand. 100% under all circumstances. I am under no illusions, I think that a certain minority of the parents are pathological and like the fact that their kids are beaten in school despite the fact it is illegal. Last week a school administrator in Bangkok assaulted, kicked and punched a 16 year old for wearing the wrong shoes to class. There is definitely a culture of corruption at work, but I believe it is on its last legs, so I am going to push against it as hard as I can. Friday, there was a cop posted at my school’s front gate and no kids were caned, but some of the teachers are still walking around with big sticks and waving them at the students. The law says that school directors cannot be held accountable, only the individual teachers.

My students are showing visible signs of trauma and inability to study, but living under the impression that you have to respect your teachers, and all of this is supposed to be normal.

They are 12-16 years olds and really in no position or frame of mind to stand up against the teachers, their parents, or the school. I have confidence that what I am doing will make some significant impact. It is certainly maddening and discouraging that right now I have to walk this road completely alone, but none of that will prevent me from doing it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is the Thai teachers that hit the kids. The foreigners don’t hit the kids, but the foreigners don’t seem to be bothered or concerned at all by it or the fact that it is going on around them and it is illegal. The foreigners seem not to want to make waves. I guess in order to continue to enjoy their cushy lives. And the Thais have a culture of hierarchy where violence is supposed to go down the chain of command, from the top to the bottom. But never back up from those lower on the hierarchy towards those on the top. This works through all levels of society. It is an unwritten rule no matter what the legal code states. A superior can bring violence and pain in unlimited measures - even death - on an inferior, without accountability. This is how 100 protesters could be killed in the street in 2010 for complaining about a military overthrow of their elected government. The law on the books in Thailand regarding corporal punishment will probably only be enforced if it is made to be enforced and that is what I am trying to do. I also have to say that many of the kids are much smarter than the adults in that they have not yet been broken, and have not internalized or fully “learned” the rules regarding the double standards of hierarchy mentioned above. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hiroyuki Hamada’s response: I’m with you in spirit on this. There should be no place on the planet where the hierarchical rule of violence is tolerated. We’ve got to move away from that mode as a species. It creates all sorts of

problems from military dictatorship, corporate domination, to school bullying, assortment of discriminations, and etc. Sharing, caring and love in harmony should do far better in letting us appreciate the universe.

I keep hearing some people claiming that foreigners should refrain from interfering with cultural or social matters of other nations but certain things are matters of “the people” of the planet. If anything gets in the way of “humanity”, one should be willing to point it out in order for it to be improved or corrected. Otherwise certain people have to live in hell just because of an arbitrary national border.

September 2, 2013 My pooch is screwed. Another policeman at the school gate today after 4 days of not being there. The woman who hit every kid in her class, hit innocent kids randomly and hit a girl on the head with a stick for not showing respect wasn’t there today. The lady who caned a kid in the groin wasn’t there. The guy who hit every kid who arrived after 8:30 wasn’t there either. I do not want to be too hopeful but… I asked 3 classes if they saw any teacher hit any students today. They all said no. But now I am apparently on the on the holy sh*t list by all the other teachers whose classes have been failing their exams at over 50% rates. The ones who hired me, the same teachers who have apparently made their living hitting kids for years. Suddenly my classes are “too loud, disorderly and disrespectful.” Kids having too much fun. The students are apparently lower orders of mammal who are supposed to sit silently, wait for the bell and file out to the next processing and rendering room in a quiet orderly fashion. 12 and 13 year olds. That is successful teaching here: Sit down and shut up. My guess is that the old “teachers” are all now a resentful and jealous wolf pack, hell-bent on ditching the intruder in the dust and turning the place back into a morgue. We’ll have to see about that. What is the worst they could do? Fire me? Sorry, Not Sorry.

September 4, 2013 The Devil is back. Female PE teacher canes a boy in the front courtyard – in front of the policeman who is apparently there not to stop kids being hit but just for show. I confronted her. Tell her the law. She says she did not hurt the boy. I said I called the Ministry of Education and the police and both said that hitting students is illegal, always, 100% of the time. She looked like she was going to cry. I asked if she’d like me to hit her, she said no. Was warned (threatened) by an older foreign teacher that if I keep this up the authorities will probably bring charges against me and put me in prison. The dreaded Thai mafia, wet your pants and run for the hills schtick. This is the second time that I have heard this kind of menacing rhetoric from foreigners - about how everything is impossible, you’re only hurting yourself and nothing will result but total disaster. Just who are these fkn weirdo expat freakshows? Terrible people. I am really not prepared to take any more of this crap at all. At all. They can have me, with 10 years experience, moderate Thai, Chinese and French fluency, educated in Europe and the US, decent to wildly good evaluations from students, disciple of Stephen Krashen, Alfie Kohn, Alice Miller and John Dewey. Or they can have these authoritarian child abusers. That’s how it’s going to go. Also, looks like Ms. Y, the teacher who hit the kid in the groin is gone,maybe permanently. But both the old woman who hit with impunity is still there, but in a much reduced state, and the old man who caned kids at the front door is still there too, but he is no longer hitting kids at the gate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

September 6, 2013, Results This time it really looks like the reign of terror is over. Students have reported seeing no teachers hit any students at all recently. I must have been totally out of my mind and insane to stand up to the woman I confronted in the courtyard two days ago. Because apparently she is some kind of big muckety muck and I saw her eating lunch with a bunch of big shots who visited the school today. In the Thai context that means I must have come off as a wild, mad, raving lunatic. Anyway, however cracked or demented I have been, it worked. The hitting has stopped. Like cold and dead in its tracks. Not just at the front gate but everywhere else that I can tell. You can no longer hear the constant whacks of students being hit. Teachers are no longer carrying their canes and sticks to class. The people who were the worst student abusers do not even have a stick or switch visible anywhere in assemblies, activities or classes. It is like a gigantic dark and terrible pal has been lifted from over the school. Unbelievable but true. I don’t want to count all the eggs just yet, for as soon as I say it, they might start back again. I am sure that I am despised to the marrow of my bones in some quarters, but what is done is done. Things are now looking extremely good for the students. Very, very, very good in fact. And so much better than I could have ever hoped for, wished for, imagined or expected even a few days ago. Right on and Cheers.

September 16, 2013 - All Is Lost Another incident today of a teacher hitting the kids. I sat down to wait for the class before mine to be finished and 3 minutes before class ended, a bunch of boys were made to line up in front of the class and get whacked with a cane. I pulled out my camera and got a video of another teacher hitting the kids. She saw me filming and went wild. Lost her cool. I explained very loudly in front of her class where they could all hear that it was illegal to hit the kids. Always. She came on with a lot of kids agree, parents agree BS. I said again, in front of her class, that it is always 100% of the time illegal under all circumstances. I pulled out my copy of the written law and gave her my phone and told her to call the police right now. I ended up talking to my supervisor who told me that all the teachers have complained about me . That they all don’t agree with the law so they just don’t follow it. She also told me that the other teachers complain because I can’t “control” my class. The operant concept here is “control”. Not much else and certainly not the welfare of the kids. I said as long as my students are being beaten that they are going to be beyond difficult to control. Eh…never mind…I am the one egregiously at fault here for wanting to protect the students and continuing to complain about a plague of unprofessional teachers engaging in illegal actions.

September 24, 2013 - The Witch Hunt Last Friday, I was told by a co-teacher that one of my advanced classes was witch-hunted by the administration. The powers that be wanted to know how a stupid foreigner could get specific legal information and Ministry of Education dictates translated into perfectly readable Thai language which I copied off and distributed to several of my classes, writing the pertinent parts on the board in Thai and having the class read them out loud so that (1) the students would be empowered and informed, and (2) the perpetrators outside the classroom could hear perfectly well what the deal was and what the students knew. One week after a school-funded “training” session, where it was suggested that we teach critical thinking to the students, I initiated a Pro and Con lesson where the topic of corporal punishment came up. The Pro side was “Social Order” and the Con side was filled from top to bottom with all manner of horrors and terrors that the students had obviously endured themselves personally over the years. I was quite surprised and we talked at length about the school policies and their experience. I went home and did research which produced this document: In brief the law is very simple. It is illegal for any employee at a school, including teachers and directors, to apply any form of corporal punishment on any child. The ONLY punishments allowed by law are: 1. Verbal reprimand 2. Exclusion from Class 3. Exclusion from School. it is NOT possible for 1. Schools to make agreements with students or parents. 2. Individual schools to opt out of the law.

3. To claim flexibility on the law – it is just as illegal to hit soft as it is to hit hard. In other words the law is there to protect ALL children in ALL schools equally, and this applies to both government and private schools. The Legal Regulations Corporal punishment is unlawful in schools under the Ministry of Education Regulation on Student Punishment (2005) and the National Committee on Child Protection Regulation on Working Procedures of Child Protection Officers Involved in Promoting Behavior of Students (2005), pursuant to article 65 of the Child Protection Act. This was further endorsed in January 2011 when the Minister of Education AND the Prime Minister stated clearly, in an interview, that striking children for any reason was illegal and unacceptable and that teachers would be punished accordingly if caught. Ministry of Education Rules also state: “Any school employee who hits a child should be immediately dismissed and be subject to review of their professional license” Advice for Parents If any school employee hits your child you have the right to file a complaint with the police. It is 100% illegal for any school employee to use ANY form of corporal punishment on children. The next week I received information from a friend regarding notorious “Frank” Netiwit, the now famous 16 year old student who led a campaign at his school to amend the draconian laws on student hair and uniforms, which turned into a national debate, got him on TV and got him elected student body president – a position he was unilaterally dismissed from by his school’s administration. I took this story into my class as a discussion topic, and again, corporal punishment came up, and the general depressive malaise of the students was communicated to me.

The next class I gave a translation assignment of the document above, assigned part by part to the entire class which resulted in this document:

After this, the students resolved to go tell the director, but they chickened out, which given all the circumstances I could hardly blame them. Once I witnessed Ms. SiriKorn caning the boy students at the end of her class, and she went insane with indignation. I gave her a copy of this document. She immediately threatened me: “Who wrote this!” She was not interested in whether the law was correct or not, she just wanted to attack the person who assisted me. Last Friday, my co-teacher told me that these teachers went to the class and tried to find out by threats who translated the document. It must have been quite embarrassing to find out it was the whole class. I am sure that they wanted to line them all up and viciously cane them all multiple times, but they couldn’t very well do that if the entire content of their lesson was how this was totally illegal. I worried for a whole day whether or not these students would be physically harmed or kicked out of school for simply doing an assignment that they were very interested in and had all but initiated by themselves. I finally got the information from some of the students that they were not harmed or hurt, but were told by their Thai teachers that “This is Thailand” and Thai culture means that we have to beat students no matter what the law says. Bollocks. That response produced the following reply from me which was posted to my FB and seen by numerous 12 and 13 year old students who received it positively: การลงโทษทางร่างกายไม่ได ้เป็ น “วัฒนธรรมไทย” ครูภาษาไทยกำลังบอกนักเรียนว่าพวกเขาจะต ้องตีพวกเขาด ้วยไม ้เพราะ “ทีน ่ ี่ ประเทศไทย”, “นีค ่ อ ื วัฒนธรรมไทย” ไม่เป็ นความจริง นีค ่ อ ื เหตุผลทีผ ่ ด ิ argumentum populum โฆษณาเป็ นปลา ี ดงและการเข ้าใจผิดทางพันธุกรรม มันเป็ นเรือ ชนิดหนึง่ สแ ่ งผิดพลาดเพราะความ ื่ อย่างกว ้างขวางถือไม่ได ้รับประกันว่าความเชอ ื่ ทีถ จริงเท่านัน ้ ทีค ่ วามเชอ ่ ก ู ต ้อง Thai teachers are now telling the students that they must hit them with a stick because “This is Thailand”, “This is Thai culture”.

Not true. This is a logical fallacy. The argumentum ad populum is a red herring and genetic fallacy. It is fallacious because the mere fact that a belief is widely-held is not a guarantee that the belief is correct. เหตุผลวิบต ั ิ (เปลีย ่ นทางมาจาก ตรรกะวิบต ั )ิ การอ ้างคนหมูม ่ าก (appeal to the majority; argumentum ad populum) คือ ้ การใชความคิ ดเห็นของคนสว่ นใหญ่ยน ื ยันความถูกต ้องของประเด็นต่างๆ การกล่าวอ ้าง: การลอกการบ ้านไม่ผด ิ ใครๆก็ทำกันทัง้ นัน ้ ปั ญหาทีเ่ กิด: ความคิดเห็นหรือการกระทำของคนสว่ นใหญ่อาจเป็ นการกระทำที่ ้ ผิดได ้ เนือ ่ งจากการวัดว่าอะไรถูกและผิดใชการคำนวณว่ า การกระทำนัน ้ ๆสง่ ผลดี และผลร ้ายต่อตัวเองหรือผู ้อืน ่ อย่างไร I worked in 4 Thai cities. I had over 2000 Thai people as my students. I traveled in 12 Thai provinces. I can tell you that claiming that beating students to a pulp does not qualify as “Thai culture” – except in the minds of the horribly incompetent people who do it. It is an embarrassment to the country and the people and the culture to make this kind of ridiculous claim. It is a horrible disgrace to use it as an excuse to abuse children. ผมทำงานในสเี่ มืองของประเทศไทย. 2000 + คนไทยเป็ นนักเรียนของผม. ผม เดินทางใน 12 จังหวัดไทย. การลงโทษทางร่างกายไม่ได ้เป็ น “วัฒนธรรมไทย” ้ นข ้ออ ้างในการทำผิดกฎเกีย มันเป็ นเรือ ่ งน่าอาย. นีจ ้ ะใชเป็ ่ วกับเด็ก ๆ There is really no hiding it now that the senior English teachers have a genuine track record of behaving like witch-hunting thugs.

September 25, 2013 - Punishment = Violence I was hoping I could make it through the last week of exams at this school without witnessing any more violence against children. No such luck. During the last exam of the day, today, the woman who some of the foreign teachers yesterday called “the nicest” in the school methodically comes through each exam room carrying a clipboard of names and a cane. She calls out these 12 year old students and makes them stand up and canes them right in front of the others while they are taking exams. Real nice. And sick. I would have videoed it but I didn’t take my camera, as I was expecting a non-violent day for testing and exams. No such luck. Incidentally, the English exam given today contained 12 unanswerable questions out of 40. That is 12 with more than one correct answer or no correct answer. That’s over 30% of the exam questions that are incoherent for students of English. Students who also have to put up with witnessing or enduring ritual violence and abuse on a daily basis. One of my 12 year old students said that a teacher came and explained to her class that teachers don’t want to hit students but if the student misbehaves, then they have to be punished. You can read right there that PUNISHMENT = VIOLENCE. Period. There is no nuance at all whatsoever. No extra work, no extra writing, no extra running, no extra push-ups, no detention, no physical exercise, no standing, no time out. Nothing. In the minds of the teachers, there is only violence. I don’t think it’s a school anymore. It seems much more like a hospital for the insane, where the severely ill patients are teachers and the therapists and doctors are young students who must absorb and endure the extreme pathology of the so-called adults. I am not joking when I say it is a mental and physical torture chamber; an indoctrination and re-education camp that any sensible student would want to escape from as quickly as possible and any balanced, well-adjusted parent would be horrified to know what goes on and have their children enrolled there. _______________________________

Exams 2 days of tests, 3 English tests I

— 24 of 60 exam questions unanswerable. Sept. 23

The teacher who prepared this exam is one who beats students. II — 12 of 70 exam questions unanswerable. Sept. 23 III — 12 of 40 exam questions unanswerable. Sept. 24

Exit Interview I was lied to in the Exit Interview where I was given 1 month notice for poor evaluation. After the “evaluation”, unsolicited information was offered to me regarding corporal punishment (with no prompt from me at all and should not have concerned anything regarding evaluations or performance). I was told “the law is flexible,” and that parents are offered to make an agreement with the school before the semester begins that the teachers can hit their kids or not. I asked how many agree and was told “most parents agree.” Which is odd since I see no official or recorded distinction or any database on who can and cannot be hit. In reality there is no distinction and it’s open season on anyone and everyone all day long. I was also told that if I posted any videos of teachers hitting students that I would be blackballed from working at any government school. Which seems more than a little off considering that they just told me that it is technically legal according to their flexible interpretation. You’d think that if they were secure in their conception of the law that they would not be concerned or care a whit about any video evidence of any teachers hitting kids. I went back and checked the law again today and found what they told me was utter rubbish. Completely wrong. No agreements can be made and there is no flexibility anywhere at any time in the law. All flexibility and agreement with parents caveats were removed in 2005 – over 8 years ago. This now seems like a wholly psychopathic enterprise run by a bunch of genuinely bent and mentally ill fools – conscious or unconscious – who are making their stake by preying upon kids, and running a protection racket for each other to allay their severe and chronic psychological traumas that they are manifesting daily on defenseless and powerless children. Plus they are backing it up and making excuses for their awful, disgusting behavior by chalking it up to their national identity and culture. Truly pathological and truly horrifying.

Five Things I Want To Remember September 27, 2013 Four things from last week I don’t want to forget, and another from yesterday: 1. After I was given notice, the only Thai teacher who explicitly refuses to hit kids and probably needs to be promoted to head of the department, took me outside and asked why I would film the teachers hitting the kids. “That’s so bad,” she said. As if ritually hitting, abusing and humiliating kids – and doing god knows what kind of horrible permanent damage – is not of itself bad. As if the issue is filming teachers doing it that is the horrible social mistake and transgression. “Why did you do it?,” she asked. And I said that I was tired of playing nice and doing it the respectful way, and giving face and all that crap. I wanted it to stop. Period. Immediately. Now. Not next month when Johnny-come-lately who hasn’t seen any problem with terrorizing kids or metaphorically sucking their insides out like a vampire pulls their deluded head out of their ass and gets around to hinting that on a good day it might be a less than ideal thing to do. Sorry to ruin the parade. This just goes to show how ingrained and pathological the whole situation is. That it’s really more like a POW camp, with constant violence, either experienced or witnessed which can be almost equally damaging, where the most competent students are witch-hunted and threatened, where the authority is unaccountable and completely arbitrary and can make up and re-make the English language as they go along – to the point that the students have no idea what’s going on and no standard for what they are supposed to be learning. 2. The students I tutored in spelling told me that most all the students did not want to see me leave because they felt like I was part of their family. High praise indeed. 3. One of the teachers from England told me he was amazed that a bunch of his students, unprompted and of their own accord, personally went to the director to ask why I was being fired. He was also amazed that another of his students broke down in his class crying because I was leaving.

4. It was difficult for me to walk around the campus because kids kept coming up to see me. One boy who was never in any of my classes wanted to hug me. When I tried to slip around the back of a building, a group of 13 year olds were kicking football and when I walked by they all dropped the game and mobbed me to hug me. I sobbed and almost broke down then, but managed to keep it together enough to survive until today. 5. Yesterday I had to write to the teachers in America that have a pen-pal exchange with my students and tell them what happened. And I forwarded e-mails from the Americans to my students who now have to explain what happened to their teacher, who was involved and what to do about the exchange. For those who prey on weaker people, and defenseless kids, it is always more convenient for their ugly business to be done in the dark. If they think it is “legal” and honorable, then they should have no problem explaining themselves to every other academic institution across the planet. Final Comments Ultimately abusing students 1. doesn’t work, except for the few minutes you’re around to witness the compliant behavior with them silently mocking you and hating you. Students respect the stick and not the teacher. 2. fosters all kinds of dysfunctional pathologies – not just in the bad students but in the “good” students who have to witness it. 3. Is a worse than useless, half-witted way to do the job. Students who don’t like a teacher don’t learn from that teacher. 4. It is illegal, which means the abusive teacher and the corrupted institution are providing atrocious, monstrous role models for students. I treat my students with respect and talk with them one to one as humans and not droids that need to be managed, corralled or coerced. As a result, in a class of 50 kids I can get 100% compliance almost always for anything I ask at any time. They do this, at least as far as I can tell, out of friendship or respect towards me and knowledge that it is something that they might want to discover rather than something they must do or be physically hurt.

There are some problem kids who show up bouncing off the walls and acting out – usually boys. But their problem is almost always that their Thai teachers are beating them regularly with sword canes and that these so-called educators are teaching only compliant behavior and really could care less if the kids are actually connecting synapses and learning anything. I have to say that the exam scores and English ability show this pretty tellingly. I used to wonder how certain ugly things were able to happen in Thailand, and now I am getting a much clearer picture of contributing factors. ______________________________

Chapter 3 - The Formal Complaint October 15, 2013

LETTER OF COMPLAINT: Dear ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights,70A, JI. Sisingamangaraja, Jakarta 12110, Indonesia

I am an English teacher from America. For the past year and a half, I have been employed at Photisampan Pittayakarn School on Naklua Road in Bang Lamung, Thailand. I wish to lodge a formal complaint on behalf of my students regarding consistent and ongoing breeches of their legal rights and human rights at the hands of their teachers, the administration of the school, the educational ministries, and the municipal law enforcement authorities. Corporal punishment is forbidden by law in Thailand, and yet my students have been and are continuing to be subjected to ongoing, illegal and systematic beatings, with no accountability whatsoever by the school administration for teachers who are breaking the law. Please find enclosed video evidence of 5 teachers subjecting students to illegal physical beatings, as well as a comprehensive list of instances of illegal actions precipitated by teachers which I, according to sworn testimony, have witnessed personally. I am appealing to you because the school administration seems to have no interest in reigning in physical brutality against children and ongoing assaults perpetrated against students. The teachers of the school are belligerently committed to conducting themselves unprofessionally and with contempt towards their students and the law. I was personally informed by an administrator

“The teachers don’t agree with the law, so they don’t follow it.” And the local police, to whom I have formally complained on August 14, 2013, seem to be unable to curb the ongoing assaults against students taking place on a continuous daily basis. The failure of all parties listed herein to protect these children from illegal and ongoing assault constitutes a breech and violation of the General Principles of the ASEAN Charter on Human Rights, sections 2-5 entitling them to equal protection under the law, as corporal punishment is formally illegal in Thailand per Ministry of Education Regulation on Student Punishment (2005) and the National Committee on Child Protection Regulation on Working Procedures of Child Protection Officers Involved in Promoting Behavior of Students (2005), as well as pursuant to article 65 of Thailand’s Child Protection Act.. Continued subjection to physical assaults at the hands of teachers who have outright contempt for the statutory law, also violates the ASEAN Charter on Human Rights section under Civil and Political Rights, section 14 which states that “No person shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Public displays of Corporal punishment also breaches the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights, regarding Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, section 27 subsection 3 which states that “No child or any young person shall be subjected to … social exploitation” Wherein students both who are subject to physical assault, and those who are not subjected directly to physical punishment are nevertheless still forced to witness these ongoing criminal actions on the part of their ostensible teachers. Further violations such as these physical assaults listed herein, include breach of ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights, section 29, subsection 1, which states “Every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical [and] mental …health.”

Furthermore, these instances of corporal punishment violate ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights Section 31, subsection 3, which states that “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of his or her dignity. Education shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in ASEAN Member States. Furthermore, education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in their respective societies.” Finally, the subjection of students to corporal punishment, while not only violating Thai statutory law and the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights, additionally violates the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child, to which the country of Thailand became a party on 2 September 1990, and which states in Article 19 “Article 19 (Protection from all forms of violence): Children have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, physically or mentally. Governments should ensure that children are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect by their parents, or anyone else who looks after them. In terms of discipline, the Convention does not specify what forms of punishment parents should use. However any form of discipline involving violence is unacceptable. There are ways to discipline children that are effective in helping children learn about family and social expectations for their behaviour – ones that are non-violent…” Failure of the administration of the aforementioned school, the teachers employed therein, as well as the local municipal authorities to (1) uphold and abide by the statutory law, (2) adhere to the standards set forth in the ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights constitutes a serious and ongoing violation of the students enrolled in Photisampan Pittayakarn School. Therefore I urgently request your assistance in addressing these violations as expeditiously and effectively as possible. Respectfully,

cc: Asian Commission on Human Rights cc: Offices of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra cc: United Nations, UNICEF cc: Offices of Provincial Government cc: Offices of Municipal Government cc: All relevant Print, Broadcast and Online media outlets cc: Thailand Ministry of Education

Complaint Arrives at UNESCO November 24, 2013 Complaint against illegal corporal punishment at Photisamphan Pittayakarn School arrives at UNESCO in Bangkok

Complaint Arrives at Asian Commision on Human Rights in Hong Kong November 25, 2013 Complaint against illegal corporal punishment at Photisamphan Pittayakarn School received today by Asia Commission on Human Rights in Hong Kong

Complaint Arrives at ASEAN Human Rights Commission in Jakarta December 10, 2013

Complaint against illegal corporal punishment at Photisamphan Pittayakarn School received today by ASEAN Human Rights Commision in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Dear Asian Commission on Human Rights November 7, 2013

ี Dear Asian Commission on Human Rights สำนักงานคณะกรรมการกำกับเอเชย ิ ธิมนุษยชน Westley Square, Hoi Yuen Road Hong Kong, China – สท I was an English teacher in Pattaya, Thailand for 2 years. In the past 6 months, the Thai teachers at the school began to strike and hit the students more and more, to the point that I could not walk around the campus without seeing students struck with canes. I found that this practice is illegal by Thai law and has been for over 8 years. I started documenting instances of teachers hitting students, and I complained to teachers, the administration and the police. Nothing happened and the assaults on students continued, with belligerent contempt on the part of teachers and the administration. They trumped up a bad review on me a fired me, despite exceptionally good documented reports delivered to me only weeks before. I complained to the mayor, the newspapers and the media, and I have also filed a complaint, affidavit and video evidence with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. I would also like to make you aware of what is happening, and respectfully request any additional advice or support you might be able to provide. Copy of AFFIDAVIT-signed Copy of Complaint-to-ASEAN Copy of AbuseRecord Affifavit Copies of Evidence delivered to police and mayor. I am not worried about my job, I simply want the abuse against my students to be addressed and to stop.

AFFIDAVIT November 1, 2013

AFFIDAVIT OF _______

October 31, 2013

Name: _______ Occupation: English Teacher I, _________, do swear and affirm: 1. That I am was employed as an English Teacher at ____ School, located at ___Road, ____ City, ____District, ____ Province, Thailand . 2. That the following detail of true and accurate information regarding illegal corporal punishment administered by teachers employed by ____ School was witnessed and recorded by myself on the premises of _____School from July through October, 2013. 3. That these recorded instances of corporal punishment are illegal according to the statutory law of Thailand as well as the international treaties entered into, affirmed and ratified by the state of Thailand. 4. That these breeches of law, the failure to enforce and respect the law, and failure on the part of responsible authorities to apply the law to the students enrolled at _____ constitute an ongoing violation of the Human Rights and Civil Rights of the students enrolled in and attending _____School. Further affiant saith not. I SWEAR OR AFFIRM THAT THE ABOVE AND FOREGOING REPRESENTATIONS ARE TRUE AND CORRECT TO THE BEST OF MY INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, AND BELIEF.

Date

_________

STATE OF THAILAND PROVINCE OF _________ I, the undersigned Notary Public, do hereby affirm that _____ personally appeared before me on the 31st day of October 2013, and signed the above Affidavit as his free and voluntary act and deed. _____________________________________ Notary Public

Good Teacher October 3, 2013 I was informed today of a conversation between the supervisor who fired me and a teacher from England. The supervisor wanted to know what motivated me to drag everyone’s pathology out into the sunlight, and wondered that “since he is such a good teacher” why would he do something terrible like that? Bingo. Goes to show precisely that my so-called evaluation and firing was a total setup and a complete fiction. They just couldn’t stand the mirror held up to their faces. And again, the one teacher who won’t use a stick to beat the students in that conversation included again her wonderment at why anyone would want to complain about teachers hitting kids [illegally]. Without any thought about the fact that adults hitting kids in the classroom is not only offensive, “obscene” was the word I told her, but also criminal and insanely pathological. How people can continue to justify these things to themselves is beyond my comprehension. Clearly the social relationship takes precedence -in desperationover any consideration or qualitative judgment of the actions of the individuals with whom one enters the relationship. I have seen this before very close to home. People can be so alienated and absolutely desperate for social interaction of any kind that they throw all ethical considerations out the window, and cheerfully, willfully ignore kids getting ruined and mutilated right in front of their eyes so that there can be a bit of pleasant chit chat at lunch. Going back to the question, “Why did he do it?” The consensus of the women who fired me was that it was a complaint from M.4/5 class at the end of June. They thought that it was that incident which set me off. They ignored the fact that this was resolved, they never followed up with the students who later loved their new lessons with me, making English films and doing correspondence with students in America. Once our teacher/student problems were fixed, they were bouncing off the walls with joy day after day. And the students even apologized to me in the end for making trivial complaints.

Back again to the question “Why did he do it?”. The women who were appalled that I would contest their brutal and incompetent treatment of my students never could allow themselves to imagine that it was not the students that set me off, but it was in fact their very own personal wretched attitude and behavior which could have motivated me or anyone to make them so self-conscious and miserable .

Letter to the American Teacher September 27, 2013 We had a partner classroom in Maine, USA. This is the letter I wrote to the teacher in Maine when I got fired. Actually I found out that corporal punishment is illegal in Thailand in all schools and for all circumstances. That was my problem, that I wished to follow the law, but I was told that some teachers don’t agree with the law and so they don’t follow it. I was given a trumped up evaluation by teachers who had a vendetta against me and 1 month’s notice. The very next week were exams and half the student body were given sub-standard exams with anywhere from 20-30% of the questions incoherent with more than one or no correct answers. All these sub-standard exams were prepared by the teachers who use corporal punishment. I reviewed the exams and informed many of the students what they were dealing with. The general culture of the school says that corporal punishment is the only form of punishment. So no matter what the infraction, kids get hit with a stick at the discretion of the teacher – which is sometimes extreme, where one girl was hit 20 times with a cane for not bringing homework. To give some perspective, in Singapore, foreign drug offenders receive 3 lashes from a cane. I have not been entirely opposed to corporal punishment for extreme cases, but this business with my students is so excessive for trivial infractions, that it defeats any purpose. A kid can carry a knife to class and get fewer hits than a kid who drops his pencil at the wrong time while a teacher is talking. It has just devolved into a big corrupt, unaccountable horror story with the worst effects being taken out on the students. They are mostly kids from poor families who don’t have much recourse and many who don’t know any different or any better. To their benefit, once they found out the law, and the position they were in, they took it upon themselves to make a very loud issue and take a stand, which I think led the administration to want to fire me, thinking it was all my doing, when in reality it was all the kids.

They were completely, overwhelmingly supportive of me in extraordinary ways I never could have imagined. All I wanted was for them to follow the law and stop caning students who were late at the front gate because of traffic or family matters, and it turned into a sort of revolution – mostly at the student’s behest and because of their efforts. I am very proud of them all. They certainly have learned about a lot more than English. I worry that the Administration will try to just cane them all hyper-violently after I am gone. I know the personality of those administrators involved is inclined that way but I think that they probably will not be able to get away with it. And even if they try, many of the kids have inoculated themselves and their friends well enough to understand that the problem is primarily with the teachers and not with them, or their character, their ability, their self, their intelligence or their person. So at least some of the psychological fallout will be mitigated, at least I hope. I am going to try to get another job locally so I can be around in case I am needed. But I always thought that my job first and foremost was to empower the kids and give them information and support regarding the range of their possibilities and supply them with valid alternatives, different ways to interpret and offer advice if asked. They really stepped up and, in the local cultural context, have made something of a grand slam home run. I have confidence that no matter what happens to me that they will be able to take care of themselves, which to my mind is a big part of the whole point of doing the job anyway. Some of my 12 and 13 year old students are spending considerable time and effort researching and quoting law to each other and debating ethics and demanding accountability. And they are setting up their own small unofficial ad-hoc committees to educate, inform and support each other. This is something I never could have dreamed of making happen before. And it was the class that your students corresponded with that made the greatest impact. This was in many ways their self-directed inside and outside school lesson plan which grew out of their own investigations and interest. They did important leg work on behalf of the entire student body, making translations and placing phone calls and holding conversations with the Education Minister’s office, other government offices and the police. And they personally took major flak from the administration for their non-lady-like audacity and independent thinking and initiative. That’s the twelve 16-year-old girls your class corresponded with. All I can do is look on with wonder and awe.

Again, I apologize for the problems and inconvenience this has caused, as all I was hoping for was an easy going exchange… Thank you for your patience and understanding and wishing you great success in everything.

Photisamphan Story at ESL Cafe December 26, 2013

I recently finished a 2 year employment stint at a high school in Thailand. The first year was actually good, sometimes fun, with some great, hard-working students and relatively low pressure. I was very happy to be able to experiment on my own with not too much administrative oversight. Over the past few years I studied some very progressive education theories and methods from Paulo Freire, Alfie Kohn, John Dewey and Steve Krashen, which I researched extensively. And I was offering my low income Thai students, the kids of restaurant workers, cleaners, maids and motorcycle taxi drivers, the same sort of course structure and progressive curriculum that comes out of elite level schools in the US like Sidwell Friends in Washington DC, where the Obama and Biden offspring attend. Needless to say my students were mostly thrilled and their productivity soared. This past year, however, the school started caning or hitting the kids at the front gate if they came to school late. I was quite upset to see this the first time, with a crusty old beer bellied frumpy late middle age male PE teacher physically striking 13, 14, 15 and 16 year old girls and boys with a bamboo cane. After research, I found out that this practice is actually illegal in Thailand. But the Thai teachers at my school didn’t seem to know or care at all, and were, according to testimonies of my students sometimes quite belligerently and brutally subjecting kids to up to 20 and sometimes 30 lashes for not bringing homework. Or doling out lashes for not putting on the correct pair of shoes, and one girl was hit across her head for not showing proper ‘wai’ or respect for a teacher. In Singapore several years ago, a Canadian kid was given 3 lashes for dealing drugs. My students were getting 7-10 times that for missing homework.

After a while it seemed like the atmosphere of the school changed, to become the most radically violent and intimidating school I ever experienced. I was never so shocked or dismayed in my life at seeing young people subjected to this kind of regime. It was like the Thai teachers and the administration now held the students in absolute, brutal, vicious contempt. Any perceived slight or existent or non-existent insult was met with physical violence, either smacking the back of their head hard enough to make them nearly fall down, or hitting with a rod, a cane or a switch. No other form of punishment seemed to be imaginably possible. No extra work, no detention, no time out, no physical exercise or extra homework. Only physical intimidation and hitting. It was like if there was no violence against the student then it did not count as punishment. Every morning, Thai teachers would patrol the student lineup and sometimes viciously strike kids for what looked to me like meaningless or trivial infractions. Almost no Thai teacher went to class without a stick or a sword cane. It was staring to make me sick and pissed off because my students were beginning to act out and become rowdy and fight a lot more in class. Several students started breaking off tree branches and finding pieces of wood and coming into class and beating each other up with them. Other students who last year were fine started to exhibit trauma symptoms – withdrawal from class, depression, trouble concentrating, social withdrawal, jumping over the walls to cut class, losing interest, not paying attention and just generally not caring about being in school. I tried to make my classes a safe zone where kids understood that they would not be stalked or attacked or physically threatened. I shut the doors to the classroom and let them know that the Thai teachers could not get to them here. After a lot of online research I found out this corporal punishment was all illegal. I had one of my better students (who was later witch hunted by the administrators) place a call to the local Education Ministry to ask if it was legal or illegal. That person said “just obey your teacher”. Unsatisfied, we called the Ministry in Bangkok and found that – yes – it is entirely illegal and forbidden by statutory law and Ministry guidelines. I complained.

Well, nevermind. This is Thailand, and the teachers have some sort of collective butch military hate-and-fear Obsessive Compulsive Impulse Control Disorder which causes them to stalk, intimidate, physically coerce, beat and flat out assault the students. And my administrators were not about to stop any of it, and were highly annoyed that I would interfere in what they claimed was Thai “culture”. This is the 7th Thai school I have worked in, and I have never seen a regime of brutality like this against students. I have to think that it sometimes resembled a POW camp more than a school. And I know plenty of Thai people – many, from high to low -who disapprove and have told me personally, bitterly that they are disgusted by that kind of so-called “teaching”. An attorney told me that she went through it and she called it “child abuse”. Another professional Thai man told me that these teachers were being “idiots”. To claim that it is Thai “culture” is about as insulting, derogatory and contemptible of Thailand as one could possibly be. I took video of kids getting caned at the front gate, over several days, and kids getting caned in the hallways and courtyard. As soon as I did this one teacher started raising her cane at me. I stood my ground and told her it was illegal. I couldn’t even walk between classes or out to get coffee without seeing some teacher wielding a stick against a poor kid. One Thai teacher even came into my class and threatened a boy for what she claimed was “dancing”. She didn’t hit him because I was there. But that gives the kind of climate and atmosphere the students were in. Finally I showed my video evidence to the police and local Education Ministry. That complaint intimidated the Thai teachers for a few weeks, but ultimately not much happened except that they stopped hitting the kids at the front gate. The Thai teachers were livid at me and vengeful for not being able to displace their personal issues onto the students with sticks and canes. At least for a while the students had some room to breathe. I took the relevant pieces of Thai law to class and explained them to the students. Told them to tell their parents if they were hit or didn’t want to see their friends hit so much. That was fine and many of the students were relieved and sort of uplifted to hear it. To at least find out that they were not crazy, or in fact all that awful and deserving of such ongoing physical intimidation. But, being kids, they were most too scared and intimidated by the institution, the stick wielding teachers and the apathetic grown ups to tell their parents anything, much less take any action themselves.

One girl told me that she could not tell her parents anything because her parents hit her too. Many students were grateful to find that they had an ally – at least if only in me ( I must say that the other foreign teachers were only interested in looking the other way about this and covering for themselves. And no Thai teachers – none – despite knowing it was illegal, did anything at all to help me or the kids). My connection with the kids, even the most troublesome, shot through the roof. Never in my life have I had so much success in teaching large classes as I did for those several weeks. They had so much respect for me that all I had to do was give a glance, a word, or hold up my hand, or move one finger and a class of 50 students would shut up, sit down and listen in absolute silence. Well, the administration couldn’t take any of that. Two months previous they gave me a printed evaluation grade of my teaching from students and teachers that was great. It had no grade below Fair, and the overwhelming majority pegged at Excellent. But now suddenly, I was told that everyone was complaining about me and my classes – and that I would need to be fired immediately. So I was. But in my give notice interview I was offered information about corporal punishment, which, if I was being fired for being a bad teacher, should have nothing to do with my performance or work as an instructor. I was fed a line about the “law” being “flexible”, something I know not to be true. That schools can make agreements with individual parents, again I know not true, and no database of students who can and cannot be hit was ever produced or shown to me in 2 years. I was also threatened that if I did not delete the photo evidence I showed to the police that I would be “blackballed” from ever working at a government school again in Thailand. My students showed overwhelming support for me when I was given notice. Many of them broke down crying in my class and other teachers’ classes. My desk was piled to overflow with supportive notes from students, making it completely obvious – to the people that fired me and everyone else who hated me – that whatever they claimed about students’ gripes was a complete fiction. Several – 12 and 13 year olds – went to the director to complain. This is unheard of in Thai culture. Most of them understood everything that was happening top to bottom. I even had kids who were never in any of my classes come up, crying and wanted to hug me. It was a really terrible and emotional time.

After my final paycheck, I filed a formal complaint with the ASEAN Commission on Human Rights in Jakarta and the Asian Commission on Human Rights in Hong Kong. I took a copy of this complaint to the City Mayor and some people in the media. I am going to pursue other avenues as time permits. This is ongoing on behalf of the students. But I am not holding my breath. The important thing to do is make a public record and example for those kids who have practically no advocates to be found anywhere. This story is absolutely true. Names have been removed. I am not sure how the admins might react. This information was submitted in affidavit form, along with other evidence to the above organizations – available by request. I stand by it. And, while I am not sure that other Thai schools were nearly as over the top with the corporal punishment and intimidation of students as the one I suffered through, I am sure that more than a few are, and I am offering this to let people know what they can or may expect to find – in what may be the worst of circumstances I have ever experienced in over 10 years as an ESL teacher.

Part 3 - Appendix : The Justifications These are segments from Alice MIller’s work on child abuse. I’d imagine that these things happen completely unconsciously for most people. Thai or otherwise.

Alice Miller – What is Hatred? Unfortunately, adults have…methods at their disposal for denying the violence done to them in youth and taking that violence out on others. With sophisticated ideological justifications they can even contrive to pass it off as a good thing. The less inclination they show to recognize and revise this ingenious self- delusion, the more likely it is that others will be made to suffer the consequences. And it is this that ultimately confronts us with the apparent paradox of a nice, well- behaved child consummately skilled in living up to the adults’ expectations and never voicing any criticism of them ending up thirty years later as a commandant in Auschwitz or as an Adolf Eichmann. Alice Miller – What is Hatred? – Paths of Life, Six Case Histories

Alice Miller, Drama of the Gifted Child The small and lonely child that is hidden behind his achievements wakes up and asks: “What would have happened if I had appeared before you, bad, ugly, angry, jealous, lazy, dirty, smelly? Where would your love have been then? And I was all these things as well. Does this mean that it was not really me whom you loved, but only what I pretended to be? The well-behaved, reliable, empathic, understanding, and convenient child, who in fact was never a child at all? What became of my childhood? Have I not been cheated out of it? I can never return to it. I can never make up for it. From the beginning I have been a little adult. – Alice Miller, Drama of the Gifted Child

Alice Miller, For Your Own Good Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence The scorn and abuse directed at the helpless child as well as the suppression of vitality, creativity, and feeling in the child and in oneself permeate so many areas of our life that we hardly notice it anymore. Almost everywhere we find the effort, marked by varying degrees of intensity and by the use of various coercive measures, to rid ourselves as quickly as possible of the child within us–i.e., the weak, helpless, dependent creature–in order to become an independent, competent adult deserving of respect. When we reencounter this creature in our children we persecute it with the same measures once used on ourselves. And this is what we are accustomed to call “child-rearing.” In the following pages I shall apply the term “poisonous pedagogy” to this very complex endeavor. It will be clear from the context in question which of its many facets I am emphasizing at the moment: 1. Adults are the masters (not the servants!) of the dependent child. 2. They determine in godlike fashion what is right and what is wrong. 3. The child is held responsible for their anger. 4. The parents must always be shielded. 5. The child’s life affirming feelings pose a threat to the autocratic adult. 6. The child’s will must be “broken” as soon as possible. 7. All this must happen at a very early age, so the child “won’t notice” and will therefore not be able to expose the adults. The methods that can be used to suppress vital spontaneity in the child are: laying traps, lying, duplicity, subterfuge, manipulation, “scare” tactics, withdrawal of love, isolation, distrust, humiliating and disgracing the child, scorn, ridicule, and coercion even to the point of torture. It is also a part of “poisonous pedagogy’` to impart to the child from the beginning false information and beliefs that have been passed on from generation to

generation and dutifully accepted by the young even though they are not only unproven but are demonstrably false. Examples of such beliefs are: 1. A feeling of duty produces love. 2. Hatred can be done away with by forbidding it. 3. Parents deserve respect simply because they are parents. 4. Children are undeserving of respect simply because they are children. 5. Obedience makes a child strong. 6. A high degree of self-esteem is harmful. 7. A low degree of self-esteem makes a person altruistic. 8. Tenderness (doting) is harmful. 9. Responding to a child’s needs is wrong. 10. Severity -and coldness are a good preparation for life. 11. A pretense of gratitude is better than honest ingratitude. 12. The way you behave is more important than the way you really are. 13. Neither parents nor God would survive being offended. 14. The body is something dirty and disgusting. 15. Strong feelings are harmful. 16. Parents are creatures free of drives and guilt. 17. Parents are always right.

When we consider the major role intimidation plays in this ideology, which was still at the peak of its popularity at the turn of the century, it is not surprising that Sigmund Freud had to conceal his surprising discovery of adults’ sexual abuse of their children, a discovery he was led to by the testimony of his patients. He disguised his insight with the aid of a theory that nullified this inadmissible knowledge. Children of his day were not allowed, under the severest of threats, to be aware of what adults were doing to them. and if Freud had persisted in his seduction theory, he not only would have had his introjected parents to fear but would no doubt have been discredited, and probably ostracized, by middle-class society. In order to protect himself, he had to devise a theory that would preserve appearances by attributing all “evil”, guilt and wrongdoing to the child’s fantasies. in which the parents served only as the objects of projection. We can understand why this theory omitted the fact that it is the parents who not only project their sexual and aggressive fantasies onto the child but also are able to act out these fantasies because they wield the power. It is probably thanks to this omission that many professionals in the psychiatric field, themselves the products of “poisonous pedagogy” have been able to accept the Freudian theory of drives, because it did not force them to question their idealized image of their parents. With the aid of Freud’s drive and structural theories, they have been able to continue obeying the commandment they internalized in early childhood: “Thou shalt not be aware of what your parents are doing to you.” – Alice Miller, For Your Own Good Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Over the years a sophisticated repertory of arguments was developed to prove the necessity of corporal punishment for the child’s own good. In the eighteenth century, one still spoke freely of “usurping authority,” of “faithful subjects,” etc., and this language reveals the sad truth, which unfortunately still holds today. For parents’ motives are the same today as they were then: in beating their children, they are struggling to regain the power they once lost to their own parents. For the first time, they see the vulnerability of their own earliest years, which they are unable to recall, reflected in their children. Only now, when someone weaker than they is involved, do they finally fight back, often quite fiercely. There are countless rationalizations, still used today to justify their behavior.

Although parents always mistreat their children for psychological reasons, i.e., because of their own needs, there is a basic assumption in our society that this treatment is good for children. Last but not least, the pains that are taken to defend this line of reasoning betray its dubious nature. The arguments used contradict every psychological insight we have gained, yet they are passed on from generation to generation. There must be an explanation for this that has deep emotional roots in all of us. It is unlikely that someone could proclaim “truths” that are counter to physical laws for very long (for example, that it is healthy for children to run around in bathing suits in winter and in fur coats in summer) without appearing ridiculous. But it is perfectly normal to speak of the necessity of striking and humiliating children and robbing them of their autonomy, at the same time using such high- sounding words as chastising, upbringing and guiding onto the right path….How much a parent’s hidden, unrecognized needs stand to profit from such an ideology. This also explains the great resistance to accepting and integrating the indisputable body of knowledge about psychological principles that has been built up in recent decades. – Alice Miller, For Your Own Good Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is it possible to have a child turn out well without forcing him to be obedient, without breaking his will. without combating his egotism and willfulness, as we have been told to do for centuries? Parents cannot permit themselves to ask these: questions. To do so would cause no end of trouble, and they would be deprived of the sure ground provided by an inherited ideology that places the highest value on suppressing and manipulating vital spontaneity. – Alice Miller, For Your Own Good Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

November 10, 2014 : Epilogue Listening to Charlene Spretnak, "The Resurgence of the Real": she references studies that show that children who experience and witness repeated violence, their synapses stop connecting, test scores fall and life expectancy is shortened. No joke. I really, honestly and truly make no apologies for complaining relentlessly on behalf of my students who were constantly getting the crap beat out of them at Photisamphan school in Pattaya. And getting fired, and losing my job for the effort. I'm especially still wrecked at being lectured about how beating the crap out of kids is "Thai Culture". And the fact that no other teachers came to my aid including all the Thais, British, American and Australian. I was even put on a blacklist and recently caught hell from bureaucrats at the new Education ministry now run by the #2 guy in the Navy - Told that I might be a "problem" teacher. This is not over by a long shot.

Charlene Spretnak starts at 1:11, One hour, Eleven minutes http://www.radio4all.net/files/[email protected]/2838-1-Clash_of_Worldvie ws.mp3

Thank you for reading our book from Walking The Ceiling Publishing Comments, Questions, Contact [email protected]

Back Cover photo by Salman

Hossain Saif

“Talk to the hand.” -Terminator 3

บาบิโลนจะถูกการพิพากษา 1 โอ ธิดาพรหมจารีแห่งบาบิโลนเอ๋ย จงลงมานง่ ั ในผงคลี โอ ้ ดิน ไม่มบ ธิดาแห่งชาวเคลเดียเอ๋ย จงนง่ ั ลงบนพืน ี ัลล ังก์ เพราะ ้ อ่อนแม่เนือ ้ ละเอียด เขาจะไม่เรียกเจ้าอีกว่า แม่เนือ ้ 2 จ ับโม่เข้า โม่แป้งซี เอาผ้าคลุมหน้าของเจ้าออกเสีย ถอดเสือ คลุมของเจ้าเสีย ไม่ตอ ้ งคลุมขาของเจ้า ลุยน้ำไป 3 เจ้าจะต้องถูกเปลือยและเขาจะเห็นความอายของเจ้า เราจะทำ การแก้แค้น และเราจะไม่พบเจ้าอย่างมนุษย์ 4 พระผูไ้ ถ่ของเรา พระนามของพระองค์คอ ื พระเยโฮวาห์จอม โยธา ทรงเป็นองค์บริสท ุ ธิข ์ องอิสราเอล 5 โอ ธิดาแห่งชาวเคลเดียเอ๋ย นง่ ั เงียบๆ และจงเข้าไปในความมืด เพราะเขาจะไม่เรียกเจ้าอีกว่า นางพญาแห่งราชอาณาจ ักร ทงหลาย ั้ 6 เรากริว้ ต่อชนชาติของเรา เราทำให้มรดกของเราเป็นมลทิน เรา มอบเขาไว้ในมือของเจ้า เจ้ามิได้แสดงความกรุณาต่อเขา เจ้าวาง แอกอย่างหน ักไว้บนบ่าของคนชรา 7 เจ้าว่า "ข้าจะเป็นนางพญาเป็นนิตย์" เจ้าจึงมิได้เอาเรือ ่ งเหล่านี้ เป็นทีส ่ อนใจ หรือจดจำบนปลายของเรื ั้ อ ่ งเหล่านีไ้ ว้ 8 ฉะนน ั้ เจ้าผูร้ ักความเพลิดเพลิน จงฟังเรือ ่ งนี้ คือผูน ้ ง่ ั อย่างไร้ ก ังวล ผูค ้ ด ิ ในใจของตนว่า "ข้านีแ ่ หละ และไม่มผ ี ใู ้ ดอืน ่ อีก ข้าจะ ไม่นง่ ั อยูเ่ ป็นแม่มา่ ย หรือรูจ ้ ักทีจ ่ ะพรากจากลูก" ้ ะมาถึงเจ้าในขณะเดียวก ันในว ันเดียว คือความที่ 9 ทงสองเรื ั้ อ ่ งนีจ ต้องพรากจากลูกและความทีเ่ ป็นแม่มา่ ย จะมาถึงเจ้าอย่างเต็ม ขนาดทงที ั้ ม ่ วี ท ิ ยาคมเป็นอ ันมาก และอานุภาพใหญ่ยงิ่ ในเวทมนตร์ ของเจ้า ึ มน 10 ด้วยว่าเจ้ารูส ้ ก ่ ั อยูใ่ นความชว่ ั ของเจ้า เจ้าว่า "ไม่มผ ี ใู ้ ดเห็น ข้า" สติปญ ั ญาของเจ้าและความรูข ้ องเจ้าทำให้เจ้าเจิน ่ ไป และเจ้า จึงว่าในใจของเจ้าว่า "ข้านีแ ่ หละ และไม่มผ ี ใู ้ ดอืน ่ อีก" ้ มาจาก 11 ฉะนนความช ั้ ว่ ั ร้ายจะมาเหนือเจ้า ซึง่ เจ้าจะไม่รว ู ้ า่ ม ันขึน ไหน ความเลวร้ายจะตกใส่เจ้า ซึง่ เจ้าจะไม่สามารถถอดถอนได้ และความพินาศจะมาถึงเจ้าท ันทีท ันใด ซึง่ เจ้าไม่รเู ้ รือ ่ งเลย 12 จงตงม ั้ น ่ ั อยูใ่ นเวทมนตร์ของเจ้า และวิทยาคมเป็นอ ันมากของ เจ้า ซึง่ เจ้าทำมาหน ักน ักหนาตงแต่ ั้ สาวๆ ชะรอยม ันจะเป็น ั ประโยชน์แก่เจ้าได้ ชะรอยเจ้าจะมีชย ้ 13 เจ้าเหน็ ดเหนือ ่ ยก ับทีป ่ รึกษาเป็นอ ันมากของเจ้า ให้เขาลุกขึน ออกมาและช่วยเจ้าให้รอด คือบรรดาผูท ้ แ ี่ บ่งฟ้าสวรรค์และเพ่งดูด ้ ค่ำว่า จะเกิดอะไรขึน ้ แก่เจ้า วงดาว ผูซ ้ งึ่ ทำนายให้เจ้าในว ันขึน 14 ดูเถิด เขาจะเป็นเหมือนตอข้าว ไฟจะเผาผลาญเขา เขาจะช่วย ต ัวเขาเองให้พน ้ จากกำล ังของเปลวเพลิงไม่ได้ นีไ่ ม่ใช่ถา่ นทีจ ่ ะให้ ใครอุน ่ ไม่ใช่ไฟทีจ ่ ะให้ใครผิง ้ ก่เจ้า ผูซ 15 บรรดาทีเ่ จ้าทำงานด้วยก ันนนจะเป ั้ ็ นเช่นนีแ ้ งึ่ ค้ามาก ับ เจ้าตงแต่ ั้ สาวๆ เขาต่างจะพเนจรไปมาในทางของเขาเอง ไม่มผ ี ใู ้ ด จะช่วยเจ้าให้รอดได้

O daughter of the Chaldeans, Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness. You will no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms. I was angry with my people; I gave them into your hand. Thou didst show them no mercy. You put a heavy yoke on their shoulders. Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children”; but these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one else besides me.” Therefore evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, of which you shall not know. Stand now with your enchantments and the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you will be able to profit, perhaps you will prevail. You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; let now the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from what shall come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; it shall not be a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before! Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, your merchants from your youth; they shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you. Isaiah 47

อิสยาห 47

Thailand Diary

Lessons Learned From The 2010 Massacre Of Civilians. This book is dedicated to Mai Neung. Kamol Duangphasuk. Thailand’s best poet of the past generation. Who was assassinated by Thai royalists On April 23rd, 2014. The brotherhood of poets does not forget, or forgive.

By Tom Huck ©2022 Walking The Ceiling Publishing

Table of Contents What the heck is going on in Thailand? Letter to a Friend July 9, 2010 Ode to A Liberated Soi July 22, 2010 Thailand as American Indian Reservation September 2010 Weekend Thoughts On The Intellectual Environment June 26 2010 Of Yellow Students and Red... July 22, 2010 First Case of Lesse Majeste – 1956 August 4, 2010 On the Thai Monarchy July 22, 2010 US Military in Thailand 1952 – 2010 August 2, 2010 People's Bank of Isaan August 16, 2010 People's Party - Announcement #1 Monday, August 2, 2010 Falling Head First Off the Noble Eightfold Path September 26, 2010 Blowback from the Thai occupation of Laos in 1827 July 9, 2010 Yellow Shirt Psychological Problems - Part I August 7, 2010 Projection

and Attribution Errors Yellow Shirt Psychology - Part II: August 29, 2010 The Right Wing Authoritarian Personality Type Yellow Shirt Psychology - Part III September 18, 2010 The Appeal of Sociopathic Permissivity Letter to Thomas Fuller of the New York Times August 25, 2010 Thailand's GDP Growth August 5, 2010 (is as Fake as Abhisit's commitment to democracy) Fair Process and Procedural Justice: September 26, 2010 Reconciliation and The Case of Thailand 2010 The Other Side of The Clock Strikes 13 October 4, 2010 A fictional rejoinder to a dystopian nightmare A moral and practical analysis of Thailand's Yellow Shirt strategy and tactics July 21, 2010

Reporter's bias in Sydney Morning Herald August 15, 2010 Article on Thai Finance Minister Mr. Korn Translation of the Newsweek interview August 17, 2010 of "Finance Minister" Korn Censorship Milestone: 113,000 sites blocked June 20, 2010 New Censor-in-chief and "Too much freedom" Arbitrage and Carry Trades: August 5, 2010 How International Investors Exploit the Thai Economy for Fun and Profit On Abhisit's WSJ article August 4, 2010 The Kentucky-Thailand Connection August 3, 2010 Fun Parts of June 23, 2010 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Reassessing 3 Critical Points of Debate with Yellow People

1. Who benefited most from the 'violent protest'? 2. Which came first Massacre or Arson? 3. Do 25 dangerous weapons make 20,000 protesters armed terrorists? The Ballad of the Orchard Keeper and the 88 Ghosts June 4, 2010 (or a

dark exorcism) - Poem Logical Fallacies Used in Thai Yellow Shirt Propaganda July 21, 2010 Thailand Newspeak Dictionary 2010 edition July 21, 2010 Thailand's International Legal Position July 10, 2010 and Cambodia's advantages over Thailand Hun Sen Is A Cur, A Scoundrel, And I’d Never Lend Him Money

Yellow-minded hysteria August 14, 2010 that got me banned from Thaivisa.com

What the heck is going on in Thailand? Letter to a Friend July 9, 2010 Hello, I apologize for the delay in responding. There has been a problematic development in Thailand. Please let me explain: Recently in Thailand the Red Shirt political faction has been fighting the Yellow Shirt political faction. I have had students who are associated with both camps. I never took any side and tried to understand both points of view. Last April and May one of my Red Shirt students, a 25 year old girl, went to Bangkok to participate in the protests against the current Yellow Shirt government. I know she had very little concern with what the protest was about, other than a vague notion that the last three times she voted and her candidate won, the results were overturned by judicial decisions or military coup. From what I understood she went to these protests with the idea that it was a big picnic where she could hang out and socialize with her girlfriends. She was not armed. She was not angry. She was not bribed to go to the rally. And she had no interest in overthrowing the government. However, on May 19, the Yellow Shirt government turned live military guns on the Red Shirt protesters and killed 90 people and wounded approximately 2000. Immediately following this incident, the government started accusing ~ãll~ of the Red Shirt protesters as being terrorists and a threat to the existence of Thailand. A witch hunt against Red Shirts was begun. At this point, the Thai government declared a "State of Emergency" and unilaterally withdrew from critical parts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - which allowed them to jail people without charges, censor and monitor the internet and throw people in jail over web and facebook postings. They have also criminalized gatherings of 5 or more people, and restricted movement of Thai citizens throughout the country. One Australian citizen and one British citizen are now in jail in Thailand indefinitely for simply attending the Red Shirt rallies and speaking up to defend their cause. One Thai businessman was stopped at the airport and jailed for comments he posted on his facebook page. When this started, I was incensed. The whole operation seemed like a very crude political bludgeon to me. And my innocent student was being unfairly demonized as a terrorist and witchhunted, and accused of all kinds of terrible things that I knew were not true. So at this point I started defending my student against all the Yellow shirt accusations. I spoke up vociferously in her defense, both online and in the presence of people I knew to be Yellow Shirt supporters. Honestly I was absolutely outraged that she would be subjected to such treatment. However, over the past 7 weeks, the witchhunting and jailing (and probably torture) of Red Shirts has only gotten worse and worse. It is really like nothing I have ever experienced in my life in any country.

And since I made a public record online of my opinions and thoughts about what was happening, I have been feeling the pressure the past few weeks. Most Thais aren't good enough at English to understand the things I wrote in defense of my student, but in the current atmosphere, I think all it would take is one person with thin skin to report me to the police. In the current legal environment in Thailand, in which the Emergency Situation allows the police, the military etc... to basically make up laws as they go along, anyone accused of a crime has almost no recourse. This week was a pivotal milestone. Since the protests in May, there have been no other protests, no gatherings, no violence, no disturbances, nothing at all except peace and quiet for the last 7 weeks. However, on July 6th, the Thai government chose to extend the State of Emergency for another 3 months. This allows them to keep up the program of censoring and monitoring the internet, jailing people without charges, making up laws as necessary and providing themselves with retroactive immunity for all of this. In a word - it looks crazy. There has been nothing going on for almost 2 months, but the repression and witch hunt will continue with impunity for another 3 months. So, when I got the news on Tuesday that the emergency situation would be extended another three months - basically for no reason - that I had better leave Thailand. All my work in Thailand is now finished. On Wednesday I packed my bags and on this Thursday morning, I took the bus to the Cambodian border. And now I am in Cambodia in the city of Koh Kong, and I feel a lot safer and a lot more relieved. Since my circumstances are a bit strained at the moment, I do not want to go back to Thailand at this time. So I hope you understand this story. I am very sorry to deliver it to you now… Now that I am out of Thailand Ican speak more freely and I feel much better. And I hope your week has been better than mine. Thank you for your patience.

Ode to A Liberated Soi Thursday, July 22, 2010 I spent 2 years living on a dirt poor Soi (alley) in Chonburi province. The name roughly translates as "Soi Save Money".

This was a working class dead-end soi, with a mechanic's shop, a bottle picking recycling place, a grandma-run store, and a garbage dump at the end. Besides that, it was all apartments. The residents were almost 100% from Isaan. They worked in all the imaginable (usually lame BS) jobs associated with Pattaya's tourist industry. These Thai people are pretty much considered the scum of the earth by most of the rest of Thailand. The whole time I was there, these poor folks often had a disposition of being tired, beaten down, overworked and very under-appreciated. Last year I was shocked to see a restaurant open up just around the corner that was painted all red with a big photo of former, ousted-by-military-coup, PM Thaksin on the wall. On the days of the big protests in Bangkok, the guys at this restaurant set off a bunch of M80 firecrackers that went on and on for like 90 minutes. Kind of annoying since I usually like to sleep at 8 am on the weekends. But more power to you. When the witch hunts started, they took down their big sign, but kept the red paint and a small photo of a young former PM Thaksin in the window. Considering that the yellow boys are carting the reds off to jail and re-education camps, even to keep a photo of Thaksin in the window was totally ballsy. And when I left 2 weeks ago, the air had become absolutely electric with new possibilities. In point of fact, despite the ultra lame emergency situation, and pissy witch hunts going on, after May 19th, these poor folks were walking and holding themselves like kings and queens for the first time in the 2 years I had been there. This was totally cool and inspiring. These poor people had their mental game so totally together that they were kicking ass all day long and they were taking me along for the ride. The atmosphere felt like this: "The anciene regime is lost. If we hold this thing together we will f-king rule Thailand and maybe the world – it’s just a matter of time." I have to tell you that the feeling I had was that the yellow government and the whole yellow project in Thailand is Doomed....D-o-o-m-e-d I tell ya. That's just my limited opinion. Take it for what you will. They are my #1 Thai people of all time. Mad love. Here is wishing all the power of the whole planet earth to you crazy bastards.

Thailand as American Indian Reservation "Let him always think he is master while you are really master. There is no subjection so complete as that which preserves the forms of freedom; it is thus that the will itself is taken captive." -Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile Book II _________________________________

Thailand is a market oriented, export driven, low-wage, "developing" economy and has been for decades. Thailand's biggest customers of cheap Thai-produced products are the US and Japan. Which countries do you think benefit most from this arrangement? Thailand has been "developing" as an economy for 3 generations, while during the same period, countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have reached the status of "developed" countries - even approaching First World status. Why does Thailand remain a developing economy, while other similar Asian countries - with fewer resources - have reached the status of First World, developed countries? Thailand hosts many foreign companies who use Thailand as a low-wage center of production. Foreign capital is brought to Thailand and used to build factories and labor centers where Thai workers - even highly educated Thai workers like engineers, and scientists - are paid wages much lower than workers from the countries (like Japan and the US) where the capital originated. Once the factory is in place in Thailand, products produced by Thai labor are sent abroad, marked up in price, and sold in foreign markets (like Japan and the US).

The difference in the cost to produce and the cost at which goods are sold almost always goes into the pockets of international (non-Thai) companies and corporations - almost never into the pockets of ordinary Thais. The actual profit produced by Thai workers is in this way removed (stolen?) from them. This is called "The Free-market economy" or "doing business in Thailand." At no point in the past 60 years, under the tutelage of American occupiers and colonizers, has Thailand taken up protectionist measures, such as tariffs, taxes, or trade barriers to preserve the real capital that is produced in Thailand. It has been shipped off happily and without complaint to foreign companies, individuals, and investors for almost 3 generations, under the watchful eyes of the Thai monarchy and their enforcers, the Thai military. In fact, members of these two sacred institutions have often been the only Thai people to see any real profit from this business model and state of affairs. Thus Thailand has served as a faithful off-shore low-wage, low tariff, no hassle plantation for foreign investors for a long time. Long enough that most people do not know any difference or cannot see a realistic way out of this situation. Is Thailand colonized? A. Thailand is a brutally capitalist country. B. Thailand follows a regime of fractional reserve banking, and un-backed fiat currency (un backed by gold). C. Thailand controls monetary policy through a Central Bank, based on the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve. D. Thailand is a low-wage, market economy, easy to exploit for foreign investors. E. Thailand is a free-trade economy. F. Thailand has high inflation - at 5% - and refuses to raise interest rates to bring it down, which might benefit average Thai people. G. Thailand begs foreign companies to build factories and entices them to do so with low taxes, low pollution controls and low environmental oversight. H. There is little or no employee welfare, protection or occupational safety oversight. Thailand has a traditionally brutal military force that has for decades, remorselessly and without complaint, butchered members of its own population in the streets. If Thai workers dare to demand better working conditions, this will ultimately be their fate. I. Thailand hosted up to 40,000 American military personnel during the 1960s, allowing the US to use Thai airfields to bomb Vietnam and allowing US marines to make incursions into the sovereign territory of Laos during the Vietnam war. J. Thailand still offers the most disadvantaged of its young people as objects of affordable "Rest and Relaxation" for American soldiers on leave or in war games; or as human commodities for international sex tourism.

K. Furthermore, The Thai king underwrites (and benefits) from this state of affairs by 1. having his own bank - Siam Commercial Bank, and 2. operating under the sacrosanct veil of the Buddhist Dharmaraja (Dharma King), thereby demanding complete and total unquestioning, uncomplaining loyalty and submission on the part of Thai subjects - punishable at the very least by jail, witch hunting, harassment, and defamation. If this doesn't look like an occupation, I think you are either a beneficiary of the current system, a willing supplicant to it, or living on another planet. Thailand follows perfectly the model outlined in John Perkins' book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," where traditional modes of colonialism are rejected in favor of total economic subjugation and exploitation. Why should the USA crush Thailand militarily when Thai capital, ingenuity, sweat and labor have been perfectly co-opted and are willingly transferred to the US through bank interest payments, purchase of US bonds, direct transfer of capital through American companies or exploited by proxy allies like Korea, Japan and the EU? Thailand, like many similar countries, is owned lock stock and barrel as an economic colony of the United States. You can call it "Modern life," "The Development Process," "Free Trade" or a "Market Economy" ...you can even call it "Fried Chicken" but the results are always the same. This colonial process might have begun in the 1950s with the encroachment of the US military and CIA into Thai society - with the willing encouragement and collaboration of the The Thai monarchy and military - and continues to this day with American military war games and shore leaves, exploitation of low-wage Thai labor and daily unrestrained capital flight from Thailand - to the benefit of foreign investors (with Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore also working as proxies and regional vassals for American sovereign interest.) This occupation is backed up by a relentless onslaught of consumerist, materialist, pro-free market based advertising - not to mention unending pro-monarchy, pro-military propaganda which begins in Thai childhood. And adult Thais - especially High Society Thais, the Military, the political, legal and academic elite, plus the middle class want-to-be's - they are the ones who benefit under the current regime and unquestioningly follow their prescribed roles as "Good Indians" who seek to preserve the status-quo at any cost in their hopes of following "The American Dream." This dream is under assault today - even within the United States itself - as a financial based oligarchy is ascendant while what used to be the American middle class descends into debt slavery. I think many middle to upper class Thais who think that if they are well-behaved and play by the American rules will someday have a house, a car, 2 kids, a fine job, money in the bank and a secure future will be sorely surprised when they wake up in the not too distant future next to their impoverished countrymen - the ones whom they have exploited and denigrated for years as untouchables and stupid unworthy indentured economic servants and slaves. The United States has a long history of occupying and exploiting foreign lands - beginning with the American Indians on the North American continent. It is not a far stretch to see the Thailand of today as a model of the traditional American Indian Reservation with Yellow-minded monarchists and militarists serving as the "Good Indians" and Red Shirted troublemakers as "Bad Indians." Dichotomies like this only serve to benefit the behind the scenes expropriators like the United States and its designated proxies.

Please read the following account from an American Indian woman writer named Waziyatawin regarding the state of colonization - both physical and mental - on American Indian Reservations in the United States today. See if the concepts herein do not transfer perfectly to contemporary Thailand as well as many other countries throughout the world: _______________________________ Soldiers and military forts came...with the purpose of establishing American supremacy in a region...This was important for initially securing economic preeminence. The U.S...then [launched] systematic and profound attacks on [our] bodies and ways of being, dividing us and crushing us into submission. Divide and conquer techniques are the hallmark of colonial manipulation. Those...individuals considered the friendliest to colonizer interests (that is, who offered the least amount of resistance) were singled out for special favors and rewards until they were firmly co-opted to do the colonizer’s bidding. Those who resisted colonizer interests most vehemently were targeted for particularly oppressive punishments. The collaborators are often distinguished in written records as the “friendly” or “good” Indians, while those who continued to resist co-optation were quickly identified as the “savage” or “hostile” Indians. The leaders, thinkers, peacemakers, warriors, spiritual leaders, healers and teachers who did not fall in line with the emerging order were isolated, dehumanized and diminished. Thus, colonizers ably and superbly fostered resentments between the two groups, pitting them against one another and always calling on the favorite “friendlies” to monitor their colonized cohort and enforce the colonial system. These divisions severely eroded the unity in Indigenous societies... Even today, those who attempt to restore Indigenous ways of being in the modern world are dismissed by colonizers and their colonized puppets as angry, unrealistic, naive, less sophisticated, or even less intelligent than those mimicking the values and ideals of the dominant society. The "friendly" Indians invested in whatever small perks they gain from the colonial system are deeply devoted to maintaining the existing system and they defend its justness at every turn. Or, they have individually reaped substantial prestige and power from toting the colonizer's party line and as a consequence turn their back on the suffering of their [own]communities ... [Good Indians] see no need to seriously challenge the existing system because having bought into the American dream they are well on their way to achieving it. They actively participate in the blind march toward "progress," regardless of how that march continues to devastate the People, their homelands, or their relationship with the rest of the universe. Some of them talk about tweaking the existing system, maybe passing better legislation on this issue over here, or developing a more strategic economic plan over there, and they have abandoned the struggle for liberation. They, in fact, do not want liberation because it might affect their comfortable status. And, because these "friendlies" offer no threat to the existing power structure, they become the favored pets, routinely lauded by the colonizers for their superior intelligence, insight, and commitment to the well-being of their People. Still others live in daily fear. They [say] "we must simply try to negotiate the best scraps we can while we numb ourselves with chemicals, feed our addictions, and entertain ourselves with material goods and Hollywood entertainment. For if we challenge colonialism, even those small privileges might be taken away."[They are] afraid to even imagine a different reality...We have accepted trauma as a way of life and we continue to harm ourselves and others. All of this occurs

in the context of a brutal and ongoing colonization. A growing awareness of colonialism inexorably leads to a simultaneous dissatisfaction with the situation and a growing unrest...Recognition of this colonial reality is the first step toward our liberation. We cannot resist what we cannot identify and name. An analysis of colonialism allows us to make sense of our current condition, strategically develop more effective means of resistance, recover the pre-colonial traditions that strengthen us ...and connect with the struggles of colonized peoples throughout the world to transform the world. When colonialism is removed from the analysis, we have little alternative other than to simply blame ourselves for the current social ills. This blaming the victim strategy only increases violence against our own people...Instead, we put our faith and actions toward making [great] change, looking to the highest potential of human agency. Today...we have reached an era in which the existing system is on the verge of collapse, with colonizer and colonized alike resting near a precipitous edge. We can either succumb to the ongoing discourse of complacency propagated by the colonizing government, or we can mobilize for revolutionary change. The original essay Colonialism on the Ground is available here: http://waziyatawin.net/commentary/?page_id=20 May the Spirit of Crazy Horse be with you always. Thank you for your support. "Free your mind and your ass will follow." - George Clinton

Weekend Thoughts About The Intellectual Environment I am Living In : Saturday, June 26, 2010 One month later ain't a dang thing changed.

There were protests in the streets in May which resulted in over 100 civilians killed and hundreds wounded - almost all casualties were red protesters. The apologist who supports the military’s killing of the protesters claims that live gunfire came from the red camp. And they claim that even ONE (1) shot fired from the red camp negates the legitimacy of the entire movement. One shot negates the demands of several thousand protesters who had their votes disrespected by the Thai Military in the coup in 2006. Furthermore all protesters therefore lose their human rights, civil rights and ~right to live~. Period. End of discussion. “Scum of the earth be gone with ye!” ALL protesters therefore cannot complain when they are thrown in jail, beaten, fined, harassed and killed. This is the ONE shot justification - followed by wholesale repression and abrogation of rights. Oh my, how convenient. To date this is the only logical justification that this government has offered for its existence. This rationalization - almost universally used by the yellow apologists - is an absolutist, totalist mindset that conveniently disregards the fundamental rights and humanity of those with whom they disagree. This is the party line and this idea is used to intimidate reds, throw all the red

leaders in jail and charge them with “terrorism”, and then brand ALL the protesters - including teenage girls, children, my students and old people - as “terrorists” who threaten the very existence of Thailand.

I say to yellows that they should tread lightly because the next time, these same repressive measures will then be easily justified when turned around and used against them. Hahaha. No time for that because they feel they are “the chosen Thais” and they will rule forever. HAHHAHAHA. One month after the killings in Bangkok we are still living peacefully and quietly under a mystical never ending “State of Emergency” - which allows the current government to make up laws as it goes along. This ~might~ be lifted in parts of the country in the next 2 weeks if everyone pretends to recognize the legitimacy of this government and ignores the stench of all the dead bodies. Call me when that happens. My opinion is that the Emergency is really a Public Relations Emergency for the current Thai Prime Minister to divert attention from the stinking mountain of dead Thai bodies he helped to create.

Many yellows and their foreign supporters cheer every repression and killing, maiming, censoring, removing of rights and so-called “laws” as they magically and randomly appear from thin air with no justification other than maintaining yellow power. As a foreigner myself I am particularly disgusted with the attitude of these European and North American foreigners who live here and unashamedly support the bloody killing of Thai people. Many of these ex-pat folks have businesses in Thailand that traditionally were quite profitable because they ruthlessly exploited Thai workers and paid them minimalist wages… So don’t ask me for any sympathy for these petulant yellow-minded children who stomp their feet and demand special privileges while taking advantage of, threatening, jailing and even killing the very people who made them rich. A bigger pack of morally degenerate leeches I have not found anywhere else on the planet. Right now Bangkok and the yellow elite are practically at war with the very ground they sit upon and the very country in which they find themselves. We'll see how long this program can be maintained. Make your bets now. TO MY FRIENDS OVERSEAS If you have time, please complain loudly and often to the Thai embassy in your home country that the current Thai “government” is out of control and killing, disrespecting and witch hunting its own citizens. A fair national election - and soon - would help quite a bit.

Of Yellow Students and Red...and my personal breaking point By Wes on Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 7:43pm These are personality profiles of yellow people, and red, that I have known. And also the story of when and why my patience with all things yellow broke. My first yellow boss I worked at this school for 3 months. The boss was a traditional yellow-minded Thai woman who was married to an English dude (much) older than her. She was just a few years older than me I'm 42 - and her husband was getting close to his 70s. Her method of operation was to delegate everything to her subordinates. Her only job seemed to be to watch TV in her office and reprimand and humiliate the hired help (Thai teachers and office staff) when they didn't live up to her expectations. Hierarchy, with her in the top position, was built into her whole mindset as well as the day to day operation of the school. The worst part of this was that she would never speak to me directly. If there was anything that I needed to know, it was conveyed to me by her peons. Not by her. Sometimes even when I was right in front of her, or walking past her door 8-10 times in one day, she wouldn't lower herself to speak directly to me. Except one time, when I was still clueless about red shirts/yellow shirts, she reprimanded me for wearing a red button down oxford shirt to work! Ha! I worked my ass off in that school. Accordingly, I earned a reputation as a "good" teacher. The yellow boss wanted to impress her girlfriend from university (who turned out to be a high level government wonk). My schedule was summarily re-arranged without my consent and I was informed that I would be teaching 20 lessons for Ms. Muckety Muck. This was the last straw for me. I gave Ms. MM two killer English lessons, helped her overcome her shyness and had her on the right path to improving her English. Then when I got my paycheck, I walked out the door, called the desk clerk and informed her that I quit. She said "Don't you want to speak with Khun BossLady ?" I said no, you can tell her. _______________

Yellow Student #1 My first yellow student was a really beautiful hi-so Thai lady who owned her own factory down the eastern seaboard. She was divorced, with a kid. She graduated from a good university and she was once married to a non-Thai legalistic dude who made a lot of money in Bangkok and sent her a fat check each month. She had a new car and her own house, fine clothes and plenty of cash in the bank. She gushed over the new PM Abhisit and thought he was cute. Although she was very liberal and open minded, she benefited directly and handsomely from Thailand's hierarchical society. From her husband who knew the "right" people in Bangkok - to the 3rd world wage system that allows amazing profits to be generated off the backs of low-wage Thai workers. I think she was quite aware of this dynamic as she said she was thinking of moving her factory to Laos because the cost of labor is so much cheaper there. We talked a lot about corruption in Thailand. She wanted to talk about it because she dealt with it every day of her life. The fact that she might be gaining directly from this never entered her mind. We never really talked politics, except when the red shirt people came down to Pattaya. They walked into the big hotel on the beach where all the Asian world leaders were meeting. This caused panic and sent most of the leaders fleeing the hotel by helicopter. I am a big fan of direct action. So, when I saw the reds arriving on 3rd road in their pickup trucks, I gave them the raised fist. And later I saw the video of the non-existent security at the hotel, and how all the red shirt people just sort of walked right through the front door. Person after person...middle aged ladies and grandmas just waltzing into the hotel wearing bright red shirts. Effing brilliant. I told my student that I thought it was absolutely hilarious. That I was on the floor laughing my a_s off. I think she was both appalled and horrified by my admission. 'Twas never the same between us after this. As an American, I tend to benefit directly from Hi-so Thais who are obsessed with hierarchy. After all, in the world of hierarchy, America is the top dog. And every skeezer wannabe in Asia Korean, Chinese, or Thai wants to be like the Americans. So I tend to be an object of interest and emulation for Hi-so wannabes. The only problem is that I grew up way too close to the piss floor of America and I don't have much love for that system in general. Thus, when Hi-so Chinese, Koreans or Thais suck up to me I only want to mock them and laugh them out of the room. But I have learned to keep my mouth shut and let the hi-so's put their own foot in their own mouth which almost never fails. For example, here we see a hi-so chasing after the myth of the American hierarchy and finding the reality to be something quite different:

My rich girl student told me a story about her American teacher before me. It seems she had a little crush on him because he was very close to her age and was..you know...American. But, they went to a go-go bar (Never mind that no self-respecting hi-so Thai girl would be caught dead in a Pattaya go-go) and she was horrified that some of the girls in the bar actually knew her teacher by name. She told me that this is how she knew that he was not in her "Social" **. (Social circle? Class Level?) And she never talked to him again after that. She has another older American friend with whom she seems to be much more comfortable. He is a low-key 55-60 year old rich divorced American business guy who brings his kids occasionally to holiday at Koh Chang. It seems that he plays the part of the deserving American oligarch much better in her mind. (**Later, when I read English translations of some of Pridi's work, I encountered the use of this word "Social" used in the same way.) _________________________________ Yellow student #2. This guy was a totally brilliant computer engineer working for a major Thai company. His knowledge of computers was vast, so we talked a lot about his job. He was smart and every bit a logician and scientist. He even approached English grammar like a logic puzzle. The one time we talked politics was when Abhisit went to England and had a spat with Uncle Giles. At the mention of red and yellow he dropped all pretense of logic and became pure emotion. He started raving on about how horrible Giles was. He became adamant and incensed about protecting "his" king. (Not the king of Thailand or 'our king' but as he always said "My king".) He went into a 30 minute rebuke (in a 1 hour class) of Thaksin's corruption and endangerment of Thailand. And on and on. I have long ago learned to keep my mouth shut in these cases. But here we see a rational, brilliant guy lost in his emotions over politics. __________________ One red student She was a young girl - about 25 or 26 - who ran her own clothes-selling stall near the Buddhist temple in Pattaya. She wasn't rich by any means, but she was smart and hard-working and she had good taste in clothes. I regret I never got her to set me up with some cool Thai threads. I didn't talk directly with her about politics, but she was at least nominally a red shirt supporter. During the early months of 2010 I watched her post several photos of herself and her friends at the red shirt rallies. This was pretty tepid stuff, more along the lines of a picnic or a high school friends' reunion. Nothing provocative, nothing incendiary, nothing violent, no anarchist or communist banners, no raised fists. Just a lot of goofy smiling for the camera and sitting around in lawn chairs munching on Som Tam.

However, after the May 19 killings in Bangkok, the whole scene in Thailand changed. Suddenly this innocent girl and her tepid little get together was "a terrorist plot bent on overthrowing the Thai state." This is the point where everything snapped for me. Before this I wasn't much interested in taking sides with yellow or red, but this kind of demonization and witch hunting was crass, dangerous and out of control. My poor student didn't do anything, but overnight she became an enemy of the state. When I talked with her recently, she was no longer a quiet unassuming girl. She, like me and a lot of other people in Thailand, had been radicalized and transformed by everything that happened. She was now completely aware of the double standards and injustice, the corruption and the various new very real dangers involved with the ongoing witch hunt against red shirts (even harmless little redshirts-in-name-only like herself). The most horrifying thing for me is that Yellow-shirt people seem to have no problem with the persecution of this girl. And even if they don't agree with the persecution, no yellow shirts have the courage to come forward to say that it is wrong and unjust. Yellow these days most certainly means coward. As long as your side is benefiting and 'winning' then why should you worry about a ___insert expletive adjective____ Red Shirt _insert expletive noun_?

First Case of Bhumibol Lesse Majeste 1956 Wednesday, August 4, 2010 Used as a political wedge to initiate the overthrow of the standing Thai government by royalist military coup. King's Challenge to Phibun ... in his annual radio speech for Army day January 25, 1956, Bhumibol told soldiers not to shirk their appointed duties to play politics and abuse their power. Soldiers were for the whole country and did not belong to any one group of people. As modest as this may have seemed it was understood as a challenge to [Phibun's] junta. Defending the government, senior member of parliament and jurist Yut Saenguthai suggested on the radio that the king had exceeded his appropriate role under the democratic constitution. The king should comment on economic, political or social concerns only indirectly through a government minister, Yut said. Technically Yut wasn't wrong. But royalists reacted with forced outrage... Kukrit wrote in Siam Rath that he couldn't even repeat what Yut had said because it risked offending the king... "Where is the democracy when regular civil servants dare to criticize the king using the government radio as their tool?" A few days later, a royalist member of parliament filed a formal charge of lesse majeste against Yut. At the time, conviction under the rarely enforced law could mean up to seven years in prison and a fine of 5000 baht. But police chief Phao personally ruled that Yut was innocent. excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley p. 134 _______________________

[Royalist Military General Sarit's political party sponsored a challenge to Phaibun's] government in parliament, culminating in a mid-August no-confidence motion, in which Sarit's party accused the government of encouraging criticism of the throne, committing lesse majeste. This forced Phaibun closer to the strongman Phao, who made things worse. A newspaper Phao controlled directly attacked the royal circle. Referring to the Buddhist anniversary, headlines in the paper read "The royalty snub religion" and "the royalty all must die." (Kobkura Thailand's Durable Premiere p.30) The text accused the palace of trying to overthrow the government and of insulting Buddhism. Privately, Phao was also said to accuse the king of giving 700,000 baht to the Democrat party. The royalists countered by spreading rumors that Phao was plotting the king's arrest. With Phao's reputation irretrievably sunk, Sarit demanded that Phibun sack him or be overthrown in a coup. Phibun's lifelong struggle against the throne collapsed. On September 16 he went to beg the king's support for the government...[the king told him] to resign to avoid a coup. The palace still preferred a constitutional transfer of power. Phibun refused, and that evening Sarit seized power. The speed in which he ... obtained royal sanction exposes the palace's complicity...privy councilors fanned out on the embassy circuit delivering the message that Sarit was a loyal royalist and anticommunist, and that the palace supported the coup wholeheartedly (Kobkura Thailand's Durable Premiere p.30) excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley p.137-138

On the Thai Monarchy Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 5:49pm WARNING: I am American and I like democracy. If that makes you uncomfortable, don’t read this…And, if you are a lover of kingly kitsch, stop now. This is the essay that will lose me most of my Thai friends and never allow me to set foot in Thailand again (without going to jail). So be it. Consider yourself warned. cc:[email protected] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Human Beings are capable of incredible self-deception. We all have to fight that. We are very vulnerable to myths. Because, some of them we want to believe. And just because they’re fictional, why not keep believing them? -Ralph Nader, speech in Seattle, May 7th, 2010 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 1 - The Mythical King When you go to Thailand, some of the first things you will notice are the pictures of “The King” along with other photos of members of the Royal family (save one…we’ll get to that in a moment). But mostly it is just pictures of the King. Everywhere. On walls in people’s homes, in businesses, on calendars, and huge pictures on freeway overpasses, in front of schools, hospitals and military bases. The ubiquity of king photos, and ‘shrines’ to the king add a distinct air and flavor of kitschiness to the whole phenomenon. It is very much akin to Elvis worship in some parts of America, only enforced with a big stick. For example, at the start of every movie in Thailand, everybody has to stand up to watch a 2 1/2 minute PR puff piece for the the King. If you don’t stand, these days you will be reported to the police for “Lesse Majeste” (even 2 years ago this was not the case - me, I always used to go to the bathroom and the popcorn stand as soon as the lights went down - when I posted such opinions on thaivisa.com, my post was deleted as a threat to the monarchy and I was warned not to do it again!). The king seems to be universally and unquestioningly revered. Any criticism of the King or just wondering what’s the big deal(?) is the equivalent of breaking wind during a Church sermon, and will be met with harsh and bitter recrimination from even the lowliest members of Thai society. The standard lines when you talk with a Thai person are these: Thai Person: The King is good. Me: Why is the King good? Thai Person: Because he helps Thai people. —Conversation is now over—-

This is always where the discussion begins and ends in an overwhelming number of encounters with Thai people. Most people in Thailand won’t or can’t give any specific information regarding this subject. Basically because most people are taught to accept these statements as self-evident, and true without question. The king is thought of by many as “perfect” and beyond criticism. To underscore the idea of the “perfection” of the king, you - and especially Thai people - are not allowed to criticize the King, the king’s projects or the institution of monarchy. If you do, you will be charged with the crime of “Lesse Majeste” (bad mouthing the king) and given a 7-14 year prison sentence. It seems crazy to me that anyone so actually ‘perfect’ would need a law like this. Psychologically speaking, it looks to be a cover for insecurity and weakness - and possible guilty feelings. Thai Lesse Majeste seems to be used In the 21st century as a crude and violent means to shut up dissent. Lesse Majeste protects what amounts to a feudal institution in the midst of nearly world wide post-enlightenment republican government. Thailand has a kind of Kingly Kitsch enforced at the end of a rifle barrel, so to speak. When I tried to dig deeper to find more information about why the king is so good and ‘how’ he helps the Thai people, I get this: Item number 1 - in 1992, the king met two opposing leaders in a civil unrest and stopped the unrest (who or what was involved, much less if the unrest ~should~ have been stopped has never been mentioned to me). OK bully. For the record, the king said in this case that the military, which at that time was butchering Thai people in the streets (a familiar hobby), were his preferred camp. Item number 2 - if it comes up at all from everyday Thais: The Royal Projects. These are a series of projects cooked up by the king to “help” the people. What documentation I could find online was pretty thin and heavy on the Public Relations. Here are two Projects touted on the Royal websites: 1. Finding meaningful employment for Hill Tribes - that is “meaningful employment” in the Thai capitalist economy - or employment other than their traditional sustainable ways of inhabiting the land of northern Thailand. (Note: these people are not exactly considered ‘Thai’ people, even though they live in Thai territory.) So helping hill tribes is sort of buying their acquiescence on behalf of normal Thais. 2. Also are science projects dedicated to ‘investigating’ different kinds of sustainable plants and crops to grow in the fertile soil of Northern Thailand. In my opinion, Thailand is one of the most fertile farmlands on earth, and I think I would never have any problem sustaining any plant here. Anyhow, these projects do not seem to be submitted to peer review from any outside agencies. You won’t find many references -if any- to a Chinese or Russian university or Western institution X’s scientific involvement in any of the Thai Royal Projects.

Other than that, details remain pretty thin. And I believe that is by design. These projects and the money involved are as opaque as a bulletproof limousine window. There is no way to trace who got the money, what the objectives were and how the project played out. The standard line is that these projects always work. They are always successful. As usually with anything Kingly in Thailand, criticism or questions are beyond the pale. Here are the heavy-on-the-PR-short-on-details royal project websites: http://www.rpf.or.th/general/english/achieve.html http://www.tceb.or.th/the-splendour-of-thailands-royal-projects.html http://www.royalprojectthailand.com/general/english/index.html http://kanchanapisek.or.th/projects/index.en.html Do a search for “Thailand Royal Projects Criticism” and you’ll get basically nothing - except for one project involving Distance learning at a school in Hua Hin - (surreptitiously reported by http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/ site) which may have resulted in corruption, seems to have failed outright, and will require a lot more money to fix than the initial outlay. So there you have it. ______________ The King is Good Why? Because he helps the Thai people. Oh really? How? 1. He stopped civil unrest (in favor of the military). 2. He’s got Royal Projects. End of Discussion. ______________ Now…you will buy this line, boy, and no further questions or you’re looking at 7-14 years in the Bangkok Hilton. So best to mind your manners - or else. There you go. Try to run with that logic outside Thailand and see how far you get. For anyone interested in rational discussion, and empirical or academic evidence, this kind of hiding behind bushes and threatening people with a stick is annoying beyond belief. If it is all so “good”, why not open up the books and prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. I think the Thai people deserve a little sunlight. Over the two years I stayed in Thailand, The whole process began to sound like a bad broken record. Something along these lines: “Our designated guy wins. Period. You and everybody else in Thailand lose. If you don’t like it pound sand, go to jail, or die. Now shut up and get back to work.” Lastly, over the years, the Thai King has acquired a current net worth of US$30 billion, consisting of cash and prime rent-producing real estate in Thailand. This fortune in a country where the average income is less than $5000 per year. Draw your own conclusions. __________________________

Part 2 -The fruit doesn’t not fall far from the tree. The King’s son - Prince Vajiralongkorn - has gained a terrible reputation over the years as an irresponsible over-indulged wastrel, now on his third wife. In a supreme act of doublethink, most Thai people worship the royal institution but hate and despise the very son and appointed successor of the “good” king. I don’t know a lot about this guy but a few weeks ago a very unsettling (to me) home video of his dog’s birthday party was leaked to the Thailand section of wikileaks.com http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Suppressed_video_of_Thai_Crown_Prince_and_Princess_at_dec adent_dog_party Dog’s birthday you say? Incredibly, this “family” video comes off as a kind of misogynist soft-core porn. In the otherwise rather boring video, we see Princess Srirasmi , royal ‘consort’ or wife #3, in a skimpy see-through dress, having dinner with her husband Prince V. They are sitting next to a big swimming pool and surrounded by splendiferous accouterments. Servants and staff are walking around delivering food and stuff in full view of the next queen’s bodacious T&A?. Dude…it’s just too weird, and way beyond my cultural sensitivity level. Then it gets weirder. Towards the end she falls on the floor in a staged act of submission or worshipful reverence before - her squatting husband? - the next king? - her pimp daddy? - I don’t know. It just seems a bit twisted and sick to me. Then they both sing “Happy Birthday” in lame English, while clutching the little fluffy poodle (symbolism!?!). I know it’s always great to see a good looking girl in a see-through dress, but, ahem, excuse me…WTF is going on with being an exhibitionist in front of the hired help? Is she doing that for herself? or at the request of Vajiralongkorn? … and then posing as a little slave girl ( a real shining example to all the young Thai ladies), making the next king look like a sugar daddy? What “family” purpose could any of this serve? The ostentation of this video in the midst of third world Thailand is difficult for me to stomach. I always think about the poor old sick Thai guy who used to sleep in the back of my alley because he had nowhere else to go. Or the old lady who made her living as a bottle picker who used to say hi to me everyday when I walked to work. Or the two middle age ladies who tried but failed to run a laundry business, or the old couple - with the man retired - who tried but failed to run a restaurant (they slept in the restaurant when it was closed), or the lady from Khorat who tried but failed to run a pizza business down the street - despite me eating there 3 times a week. These are Thai people busting their asses to make ends meet. When I compare these people to their next ‘king’ and ‘queen’, I can’t fail to become nauseous. Not to beat a dead horse, but this all gets even worse.

Bodacious Princess Srirasmi, is the designated “new” face of the institution of the Thai monarchy. Therefore, within the last year in Thailand I noticed that her “picture” is starting to pop up next to all the important ubiquitous pictures of the old King. This is probably a smart move since she certainly is more attractive and better looking than anyone else in the family, that’s for sure. Finally, here is the deal breaker for me: One day after watching this video, I saw a giant 3-story picture hanging on the outside wall of Pattaya Elementary/Middle School #8 Here is the photo -

When I saw this giant poster on the school I immediately felt physically sick and damn near lost it on the sidewalk. I understand that almost all people are well meaning - even the Thai royals but something horrible split open in my brain on that day and I have never been the same. I worked in a Thai Elementary school and this was just too much for me. I still have real daytime nightmares and severe physical and emotional problems when I try to reconcile the royals plastering themselves all over Thai schools. These kids hardly have a fighting chance when this sort of accept-the-monarchy-no-questions-asked line is pitched at them from such an early age. After this, I could only see the whole Kingly enterprise in Thailand is a gigantic unaccountable self-interested project - crazily enough - with legitimate calls for oversight or accountability punishable by prison or death.

In this system the people pay the king - in the millions of dollars per year (rather handsomely for a 3rd world country) - and the king spends the PEOPLE’S money to “help” the people - but the people can’t look at how or where the money is being spent. So why finance the spectacle? Why not remove one layer and let the people spend their own money and oversee it every step of the way? To make matters worse, the king, by virtue of his silence after April/May 2010 has proven himself to be a partisan yellow shirt as well. He obviously has no problem with the orders to shoot down the red protesters in Bangkok. He has no problem with the unjust witch hunt against people who voted against his Yellow shirt party in the last 4 popular elections. And now the king is fine with delayed elections or no elections. I think Military rule is much preferable to democracy for the Thai monarchy which benefits rather handsomely from the current state of affairs. As long as the king who can’t take criticism or questions of even the smallest sort, and his self-interested institution benefit, Thailand and the Thai people can prostrate themselves and accept the moral contradictions or go jump in a lake. Rational government in the interest of the whole Thai society has been overridden. Now we have rule by appeal to emotion and irrationality. The Greek’s have a word for it: pathos. Pathos is a form of persuasion based on emotion. The modern word is “Pathetic” _________________________ Part 3 - Defense of the King and Stockholm Syndrome - What it means to be Thai today The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other. -Walter Bagehot The Thai king hides behind state power, and claims to be the absolute center of Thai culture. He tries to push the line that he represents everything that it means to be Thai. He’s “The Father” and all other Thais are “The Children”. And thousands of Thai people unthinkingly and unquestioningly buy into this idea. To me, it looks like it is easier for some people to be a slave. Let’s excuse for a moment the total pig-headed arrogance of this idea…that in the 21st century, what it means to be Thai is to be a vassal, a slave, a royal subject, a bend-over boy or a bootlicker. My universally brilliant Thai students have shown me beyond any doubt that they do not deserve this condescendtion. In my opinion, Pridi Banyogmong - the father of Thai democracy who helped to establish the first Thai republic in 1932, made a critical mistake at that time by ~not~ calling for the end of the monarchy in Thailand. And 14 years after the establishment of a Republic, in 1946, Pridi’s refusal to do away with the king led directly to THIS king, Bhomibol and his sycophants using the Thai military to attack, overthrow and do away with the republic. And Thailand has continued to live without substantial democracy, and without a republic ever since.

And when the results of any democratic elections in Thailand failed to please “The monarchy”, the military has stepped in to overturn the election by performing coup after coup after coup (18 total coups since 1946 - all with the apparent blessing of “The Father”). It seems really clear that Thailand has to choose either a king or a democracy. The way things are set up now, there really is no other choice. If democracy is to succeed, then at some point the military has to be put on a leash, and the king is obviously not going to do that. A further rationalization used to support the monarchy is the appeal to history. In the 1300’s the first state that could be called Thai —- Sukothai — came into existence. This model posted the King as the Father and the subjects as the Children. Modern defenders of the monarchy point to this model and say that it is “the old way”, the original state of Thailand and therefore the “good” way. I think this is an argument made by masochists. This is kind of like claiming that modern America would be better and stronger if it returned to its proper original state with the Articles of Confederation or as a colony of England. I am not buying any of it. This is backward looking and requires sticking your head in the sand in the face of the myriad of challenges facing all people in the modern world. The one feature of “SukoThai” that is never mentioned by monarchists is the idea that in the old days, if the King’s subjects had a petition or a problem, they could go to the king’s house , ring the bell, and be offered an audience with the king who would arbitrate disputes and offer guidance. That sounds good to me. But try to do that in today’s Thailand and you’ll probably be shot on the steps of the palace gate. The problem with today’s appeal to Sukothai is that it never includes accountability of any kind on the part of the king. The last line of defense (which by the way you hear a lot of these days) is that if the king is abolished, then Thailand will cease to exist. If I can pick myself up off the floor before I laugh to death, I suppose without a king, the mighty Lao or the great imperial Cambodian Army, or the Burmese blitzkrieg will instantly overrun and annex Thailand. This is either the lamest argument in history, or these military/monarchist guys are self-aware of their own incompetence, cowardice and corruption. My bet is that without a king, Thailand would exist - just like Bhutan (ex monarchy 2006) or Nepal (ex monarchy 2008) or France or America. Not only would it exist, it would thrive. As things stand now, the monarchy provides a convenient excuse for: 1. everyday people to sit on their butt and complain about everything but the monarchy. and 2. for those who benefit from royal patronage (i.e. kingly apple polishers who want to keep their gravy train rolling)

Being “Yellow” in 2010 Yellow is the color of the king, and the default setting for almost all Thais is to unquestioningly support the King (and tacitly by default his “Yellow Shirts”). This is by far the easiest choice. Calling kingly BS, or refusing to follow the proscribed King-Worship plan results in severe ostracization and punishment in a society where social cohesion and conformity are considered crucially important. What do you do when you have grown up your whole life and you only know one way, you only experience one idea of government? And everyone in your society follows only this path: to fall on the floor and scream for a king. This is the essence of what many people today consider what it means to be “Thai”. No other path is allowed, and to even speak of another path will subject you to being outcast, or even jailed, or even killed? What would you do? Would you fall in line? Most of the time before 2010 the yellow phenomenon was just amusing and annoying. But when push comes to shove, it quickly becomes clear that the Thai military is actually the monarchy’s private mercenary army. When Red-shirt protesters started turning up dead in the streets, it seemed that the Thai military was just performing its prescribed job. And after April-May 2010, I really began to notice people’s true colors. En masse, average to middle to upper class Thais who claimed to be neutral, turned right around and supported the king, despite the king’s silence (and tacit approval), and political benefit from having his political opponents butchered like dogs in the streets. No questions asked. No apologies. Even some red shirt people whose family members and friends were killed, never wavered from the must-love-the-king meme. This is the essence of the Stockholm Syndrome - to fall in love with your abuser. One Thai girl who I think is a genius and the total bee’s knees, and who on good days I had dreams of asking to marry me, turned up on her facebook page with the phrase “Love the King” tagged to her name (maybe as a nice way to ward off the cyber police - but I doubt it). She is a a good “Thai”, taking the easy route. In my opinion, continuing to support yellow shirts after the 2006 military coup was annoying but somewhat understandable… Continuing to be yellow after the overturning of legitimate fair elections in 2007 and 2008 by Yellow-minded judicial decision, was pushing the limits. …But continuing to scream for the yellows after the killings in April and May to me was pure madness. A complete toxic moral waste dump and a disgusting wallow in brainless brutality. All with the unspoken, tacit approval of the monarchy and the elite members of Thai society.

And still the yellow people march on. They are insatiable and they will never be satisfied. There is one Red Shirt woman who fled to Cambodia after the protests. She was arrested last week by the Cambodian police and deported to Thailand, where she will presumably be charged with terrorism and face a firing squad!!!!….in a Buddhist country!!!!!! On that day The yellows will give a loud cheer and puff themselves up self-righteously. (I have seen this sick opera before last time it was ‘Sodom’ Hussein and America.) Little do the yellows know that they have led their country into a monstrous anti-Buddhist hell on earth from which they obviously have no plans or desire to escape. I don’t think any of the yellow brutality is changing anyone’s minds, but it is turning the yellow supporters into rooting, amoral, anti-human pigs full of hate and bloodlust. These are not people I want to hang out with or be associated with in any way. Presumably, someday, there will be another election in Thailand. And presumably the yellow government will get its butt kicked once again - for the 5th consecutive time since 1998. And presumably the Yellow Shirt tanks and helicopters will shortly thereafter hit the streets and Thai democracy will die again. When the Thai monarchy is on a roll, who will stand up and stop any of this? My prediction is that the majority of Thais, unwilling to learn from history and taught from childhood to scream to be subjects of a king, will get exactly what they deserve. Don’t ask me to stand up and applaud. Happy Bastille Day Thank you for your support

US Military in Thailand 1952 - 2010 Monday, August 2, 2010 The Beginning In late 1952 , the CIA and the U.S. Information Service put out handbills and booklets in Thai declaring how Communism opposed [Thailand's] nation, religion and king. They exaggerated the threat by manufacturing fake communist tracts in Thai that attacked the monarchy. Over time, the United States expanded the effort into pictures, books and movies. In 1956 the U.S. had eight mobile teams putting on film and music shows contrasting the beloved king and queen with the evil spectre of communism. Bhumibol also presided over the investiture of [General] Phao's personal brigade of aswan or knights, actually the thugs who ran Phao's drugs and protection rackets. [This group was the BPP.] As the CIA client for anticommunist operations, the BPP was better trained and armed than the regular army. Its training center was next to the king's Hua Hin palace. As he [the king] used the BPP airfield, and they served as his local escort, a special relationship blossomed... This special relationship was encouraged by both Phao and the CIA... excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley p 124-125 _______________________ 1960s Bangkok reacted [to Lao communist activities] by forming a counterinsurgency task force, the Communist Suppression Operations Command, or CSOC, run by Deputy Prime Minister Praphas along with U.S. advisers. Behind them was the massive force the United States had built up in Thailand, consuming the country like an occupation. In the early 1960s the Americans, together with Thai soldiers, were already conducting guerrilla raids into Laos and launching air strikes on Laos and Vietnam from Thai bases. By 1965 there were roughly 14,000 U.S. military and intelligence personnel in Thailand. A year later the total topped 34,000 accompanied by 400 aircraft. The American force was there ... to prevent the rise of a domestic Thai insurgency...and legitimized the Thai military's control of the country. ...Washington threw huge resources at winning the people's hearts and minds through development, hoping to avoid the problems of Vietnam. U.S. directed projects built roads, dug fish ponds and established social services in rural villages. Within a few years U.S. annual spending in Thailand equaled the total economic product of the entire northeast where the lion's share of it was deployed, all accompanied by anit-communist and pro-monarchy propaganda.

Arguably, the extensive U.S. presence and aid worsened the problems. Much of Washington's hundreds of millions of dollars dropped into the pockets of the traditional elite, the landowning aristocrats, Sino-Thai traders, and powerful bureaucrats and generals. Bangkok spent up to three times as much on arms as it did on education, and health services got much less. Strong economic growth came with high inflation near military bases, GIs on holiday carousing drunkenly throughout the kingdom, and a very visible explosion of the sex industry. excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley p. 184 _________________ 1966 ... Thailand had agreed to Washington's request for a large Thai combat deployment to Vietnam Increasingly Thailand's generals were being accused of Dictatorship, by anti war activists in the United States. Bhumibol told "Look" [magazine] that the American student protesters were ignorant and victims of communist manipulation. Thailand had to be wary of such communist trickery, he argued. excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley p. 188 _____________________ 1967 In an interview with reporters, the king stressed the global communist threat and repeated that American opponents of the Vietnam war were victims of brainwashing. (New York Times June 14, 1967) The regular [Thai] police were meanwhile being funded by another U.S. government arm, the State Department's secretive Office of Public Safety...The office offered the police 100 new aircraft and fuel. [Eventually these were seized from the police by the BPP (king's personal guard) with the blessing of the king] excerpt from The King Never Smiles, by Paul Handley p. 191-193 _______________________

And more recently: Thailand has served as an outsourced CIA sponsored Torture center. This started with Bush's War of Terror and allows the US military/government to avoid public relations problems in the US and further allows sticky legal issues to be avoided in 'der USA homeland' March 2002: First Secret CIA Prison Built in Thailand ABC News : the first CIA secret prison is established in Thailand at this time to house Abu Zubaida, the first important al-Qaeda target who is captured at this time (March 28, 2002). President Bush had recently authorized the creation of CIA prisons (see After February 7, 2002). After being captured in Pakistan and treated for gunshot wounds, Zubaida is flown to Thailand around the middle of April 2002 and housed in a small warehouse inside a US military base. He is waterboarded and interrogated (Mid-May 2002 and After)...Some reports place the secret prison at the Voice of America relay station near the north-eastern Thai city of Udon Thani close to the border of Laos, but this is unconfirmed. [Sydney Morning Herald, 11/5/2005] http://tinyurl.com/27brk6y Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign, termed the detention policies used by the U.S. “Crimes against Humanity”: “These instances of the enforced disappearances of human beings and their consequent torture, because they are both widespread and systematic, constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court, which have been ordered by the highest level officials of the United States government…” Referring to President Bush and his principal advisers, Boyle continued, “Since these criminal activities took part in several states that are parties to the ICC Rome Statute, that renders these U.S. government officials [AND I MIGHT ADD - THAI OFFICIALS - THAKSIN's boys or ABBY's] subject to prosecution by the International Criminal Court on the grounds of territoriality of the offense, even though the United States [OR THAILAND] is not a party to the Rome Statute.” And there is no expiration date on these charges. http://pubrecord.org/torture/7326/two-dozen-countries-complicit-torture/ **Thailand is at least 'looking into' buying a used submarine from the US Navy - which, if they do it, will involve ongoing purchases of spare parts, etc... Thailand still conducts regular Military "exercises" with the US military - including naval and land war games. http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/index.php?blog=5&title=cobra-gold-2009&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

People's Bank of Isaan: Using the king's fortune to make Thailand a rich and developed country Monday, August 16, 2010 This article is not criticism, but a practical solution to Thailand's economic problems in 10 steps.

Step 1. Charter a new bank and put the main office up in Khon Kaen. Call it "The People's Bank of Isaan". 2. Put the king's property in trust, transfer the monarchy's $30 billion capital and deposit it in the People's Bank of Isaan. 3. Use the standard practice of fractional reserve banking to multiply the deposit of the king's $30 billion by a conservative 8 times (instead of the standard nine). Require 100% reserve deposits (i.e. the principal can never be used for speculation or other investments of any sort). 4. The new total of $240 billion will be immediately available for small denomination lending (micro-loans) exclusively to low-income residents of the provinces of Isaan. All loans will be specifically targeted for the poorest citizens. This bank will not accept additional deposits or transactions from any foreign entities (to prevent carry trades) or any wealthy Thai persons or any Thai business or any entity at all, except low income people of the provinces of Isaan.

This program will offer an instant stimulus equal to 44% of current Thai GDP (US$538 billion) directly to the economy of Isaan which is now one of the poorest areas of Thailand. This stimulus is important in that it is not borrowed from any central bank, and will not require ongoing interest payments to any outside party. 5. The secondary function of this bank will be to eat inflation on behalf of the people of Isaan for a period of 5+ years. Accordingly, the interest charged on loans made to the people of Isaan will be below the current rate of inflation (i.e. below Thailand's 3.4% annual inflation rate). For example - loan interest rates can be set at approximately 2% - 2.5% or lower. This will allow many Isaan families to get themselves out from under high-interest loans which are currently dragging them down and preventing them from reaching their full economic potential. (Loan sharking is a lucrative industry in Isaan. This bank will kill loan sharks). ~~~~~ Loans should initially be offered in small denominations - 5000 - 10000 Baht. Upon full repayment of the initial loan and proof of willingness to repay, additional larger loans can be provided to individuals according to their needs. No outrageously large or unsustainable loans will be made. We can also shift the money that currently goes for kingly Public Relations to getting the message out for this bank - describing its (true) patriotic intent and making it shameful to not repay the loans. ~~~~~ 6. After the initial 5 year mission to eat inflation by offering low interest rates, economic activity and velocity of money will increase and inflationary pressure will build across Thailand, thus requiring higher interest rates at the Bank of Thailand. This will make the BOT a target for international currency speculation. At this point, Thailand should drop all pretense of "Free Trade" and implement heavy taxes on capital flows both coming into the country and going out. This is in the interest of protecting, building and maintaining Thailand's economic sovereignty. There is nothing bizarre about this and there is ample precedent from countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and China which have become rich by following protectionist practices regarding capital flow. (South Korea once had a death penalty for capital flight.) 7. All profits accrued to The People's Bank of Isaan upon repayment of loans will be used to buy only gold bullion on the open market. When the gold deposits of the People's Bank of Isaan reach the level of $30 billion, all of the initial deposit capital will be returned to the king.

This will give Thailand a gold reserve high enough to match 100% of the circulating Baht currency (bills and coins) that now exist in Thailand. (also known as M1 or Stock of Money) This gold reserve will allow Thailand to make the Baht fully convertible into gold and allow Thailand to offer the world's first 100% gold backed currency since Richard Nixon closed the gold window in America back in 1972. Because there are currently no countries in the world that can even dream of backing their currency with gold, this will make Thailand the premiere center for economic investment and finance on the planet, and probably catapult Thailand's GDP to levels near China and Japan - a natural but forgotten state of affairs considering that as recently as 1700 Ayutthaya was one of the the largest and richest cities in the world. There is absolutely no reason to believe that circumstances like that could not be re-established in the 21st century. That is, if Thai banking is used as a public service rather than a predatory profit-driven enterprise. 9. At this point, 5-10 years in the future, we will see the following: A. the velocity of money within Isaan should be high enough to give the Isaan provinces the highest GDP and most vibrant economy in Thailand outside Bangkok. B. The overall GDP and vitality of the Thai economy will be much improved. C. The Thai Baht will be equal in people's minds ~ and in reality ~ to gold and thus will be one of the most valuable currencies in recent monetary history. D. Net worth, purchasing power and economic security of all Thai people will improve dramatically. E. Exports can continue as normal. However, the value of the Baht should rise substantially and this will negatively impact exports. But in case you forgot, that is a good thing! F. Which means now, it is time to grow up and practice internal development, stimulate internal demand, and leave exploitative low-wage exporting in the trash bin of history. G. Thailand is now rightfully one of the richest countries on earth. 10. How do you like me now?

Giant pile of Baht _____________________________________

An easy to follow MEMO for Khun Economist Abhisit 1. Charter a People's Bank and capitalize it with the King's fortune. 2. Offer low-interest loans to Isaan people. 3. When inflation rises, raise interest rates and use tariffs to slow capital flows. 4. Use the bank profits to buy gold, and back the Thai money supply 100% with gold 5. Watch the fireworks Thank you for your support

People's Party - Announcement #1 - Was This Written Yesterday?

Monday, August 2, 2010 at 1:07pm

The king maintains his power above the laws as before...He appoints...court toadies without merit or knowledge to important positions, without listening to the voice of the people. He allows officials to use the power of their office dishonestly...which squanders the wealth of the country. He elevates those with royal blood (phuak chao) to have special rights more than the people. He governs without principle. The country's affairs are left to the mercy of fate, as can be seen from the...hardships of making a living - something the people know about already. The government of the king above the law is unable to find solutions...This inability is because the government of the king has not governed the country for the people, as other governments have done. The government of the king has treated the people as slaves (some called phrai, some kha) and as animals. It has not considered them as human beings. Therefore, instead of helping the people, rather it farms on the backs of the people. It can be seen that from the taxes that are squeezed from the people, the king carries off many millions for personal use each year. As for the people, they have to sweat blood in order to find just a little money...There is no country in the world that gives its royalty so much money...

The king's government has governed in ways that are deceiving and not straightforward with the people. For example, it said it would improve livelihood in this way and that, but time has

passed, and nothing has happened. It has never done anything seriously. Further than that, it has insulted the people - those with the grace to pay taxes for royalty to use - that the people don't know as much as those of royal blood. But this is not because people are stupid, but because they lack the education which is reserved for royalty. They have not allowed the people to study fully because they fear that if the people have education, they will know the evil that they do and may not let them farm on their backs. All of the people should know that our country belongs to the people - not the king, as has been deceitfully claimed. It was the ancestors of the people who protected the independence of the country from the enemy armies. Those of royal blood just reap where they have not sown and sweep up wealth and property worth many hundred millions. Where did all of this money come from? It came from the people because of that method of farming on the backs of the people! ...In truth, government should use the money that has been amassed to manage the country to provide employment. This would be fitting to pay back the people who have been paying taxes to make royalty rich for a long time. But those of royal blood do nothing. They go on sucking blood...All this is certainly evil. ...to correct this evil...a government by an assembly [must be established], so that many minds can debate and contribute, which is better than one mind... [The king] must be under the law of the constitution for governing the country, and cannot do anything independently without the approval of the assembly of people's representatives. If the king relies with a refusal...for the selfish reason that his power will be reduced, it will be regarded as treason to the nation, and it will be necessary for the country to have a republican form of government, that is, the head of state will be an ordinary person appointed by parliament to hold the position for a fixed term. By this method the people can hope to be looked after in the best way...When we have seized the money which those of royal blood amass from farming on the backs of the people, and use these many hundreds of millions for nurturing the country, the country will certainly flourish. The government...set up will draw up projects based on principle, and not act like a blind man as the government which has the king above the law has done... Everyone will have equal rights and freedom from being serfs (phrai) and slaves of royalty (kha, that). The time has ended when those of royal blood farm on the backs of the people. The things which everyone desires, the greatest happiness and progress which can be called si-ariya will arise for everyone. Announcement #1 of Thailand People's Party 24 June 1932 http://www.pridi-phoonsuk.org/pridi-by-pridi/

Falling Head First Off the Noble Eightfold Path - Bhumibol's Corruption of the Institution of the Dharmaraja Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 12:04pm "Old Master...look at you now...You have, in sum, assembled all the 6 robbers together. How could you possibly get to the Western Heaven to see Buddha?"- The Monkey King, Wu Ch'eng En "Journey to the West"

"That which the wise man will not take, the king will go through fire and water to obtain."- Jack Kerouac, Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha

This is a story about The Noble Eightfold Path and how the Thai king Bhumibol has failed to follow it.

In doing so, he has compromised the sacred institution of the Dharmaraja – the Buddhist Dharma King – which he claims is the central institution representing Thai culture and the country of Thailand. The king is considered the absolute center and guarantor of Thailand’s sovereignty. Therefore his failure must be counted as one of the great tragedies in the recent history of Thailand.

The Noble Eightfold Path is the central teaching of Siddhartha Gautama and the foundational teaching of Buddhism. I was first introduced to these concepts from the American Catholic/Buddhist writer Jack Kerouac. Being a basic and simple minded guy, I take what I read at face value. I don't know about any Machiavellian exceptions for kings or royalty to these guidelines. I am not aware of any rationalizations or equivocations that may be written in the Thai language about these guidelines, and I don't know how or why anyone might have a special pass for reasons of statecraft or national security. If you know of any exceptions or shortcuts please tell me. Otherwise I will assume that failure, and especially conscious and premeditated failure to follow these guidelines will not lead to wisdom, the cessation of suffering or to Nirvana

My primary criticisms of Bhumobol come from his multivarious failures of ethical conduct. I cannot speculate about the state of his mental discipline; but 60 years of violence, embrace of militarism, corruption of justice and the rule of law, and contempt for democracy belie a troubled mind indeed. Conduct, after all, lays the foundations for the mental discipline and wisdom which lead to Nirvana. "All higher spiritual development is not possible without this moral basis." To whom much is given, much is expected. Thus follows an outline of the Eightfold path in bold, taken from an English language Theraveda Buddhist text that I found in a vegetarian restaurant in Phnom Penh. My criticisms are in regular type.

The Noble Eightfold Path 1. Right Understanding (Samma ditthi) 2. Right Thought (Samma Sankappa) 3. Right Speech (Samma Vaca) 4. Right Action (Samma Kammanta) 5. Right Livelihood (Samma Ajiva) 6. Right Effort (Samma Vayama) 7. Right Mindfulness (Samma Sati) 8. Right Concentration (Samma Samadhi) These 8 items are divided into three areas (a) Ethical Conduct (Sila) (b) Mental Discipline (Samadhi) (c) Wisdom (Panna)

Ethical Conduct (Sila) The conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings - on which the Buddha's teaching is based. For the good of the many, out of compassion for the world (bahujanahitaya bahujanasakhaya lokanukamaya) The first and perhaps most critical charge is that the Thai king has split his kingdom. He has divided his subjects. He extols those who support his politics and punishes unto death those who have different ideas. This process began in the mid-1950s when Bhumibol and his supporters overthrew the secular government of Phaibun, and has continued unabated and with impunity to the present day, when ½ or more of the Thai population has been condemned to the status of a hated “out group” - Serfs whose lives, rights thoughts and very humanity have been rejected by the man charged with the station of their Dharma king.

Ethical conduct involves Right Speech Right Action Right Livelihood Right Speech = 1. Abstention from telling lies. Bumhibol has equivocated to no end when it served his secular purposes, and hypocritically and conveniently changed his position 180 degrees when he needed justification for any number of his hypocritical interventions in Thai politics. Like advocating use of the constitution transfers of power in 1992 and using this to shame Chamlong Srimuang for not following the impossible path of amending the constitution when all hope of doing so had been compromised by Bhumibol’s own appointments to the Thai “senate”. In the same conflict praise was given for “following the constitution” to the brutal, corrupt and murderous general Suchida who Bhumibol favored. Then Bhumibol started talking out the other side of his mouth by fully supporting use of the Thai military to seize power in 2006 in complete contempt of the constitution and international law. Now refusing to follow the constitution is fine when it serves to give power to the monarchy and those who support Bhumibol’s despotic monarchist philosophy of government.

2. Abstention from backbiting slander and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony among individuals or groups.

3. Abstention from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious, abusive language. 4. Abstention from idle useless foolish babble and gossip. When abstaining from these 4, one must speak the truth and use words that are friendly, benevolent, pleasant, gentle, meaningful and useful. If one cannot say something useful, one should keep noble silence. Bhumibol always has the luxury of maintaining a fictional silence, when he has on his payroll, a coterie of monarchist henchmen who can abuse, slander and libel opponents on his behalf. One of the first cases of this occurred in 1956 when Royalist General Sarit's political party accused Phaibun’s secular government of committing lesse majeste - which began the process of a military overthrow of Phaibun’s government and the re-entrenchment of Bhumibol’s monarchy which Phaibun and Pridi had opposed since 1932. The process continues up to this day when the king can claim – with a straight face - that lesse majeste is an anachronism, while his thuggish minions have increased prosecution of these cases by 1500% since the coup of 2006. Bhumibol might only be accused of foolish babble when his public speeches are subjected to non-partisan discursive analysis. Right Action - Aims at promoting moral, honorable and peaceful conduct 1. Abstain from destroying life. Here are just a few examples: Bhumibol overtly or tacitly endorsed the Thai Army's butchering of Thai citizens in 1972, 1976, 1992,and 2010. He sent Thai soldiers to fight in Vietnam, allowed the US military to use Thailand as a base to attack Cambodia and to drop more bombs on Laos than were dropped by all Allies combined during the Second World War. Lao people still suffer scores of casualties each year from unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam war. Bhumibol refused to provide clemency to 3 people who were put to death for the shooting of his brother (which conveniently resulted in his ascension to the Thai throne.). Years later he equivocated by claiming to have lost track of time. 2. Abstain from stealing. This could include the premeditated overthrow of Phaibun's government in 1956, stealing the Thai people's legitimately elected government in 2006, claiming the right to sociopathically not to pay taxes for 60+ years, charging usurious interest through the Siam Commercial Bank, and possible – but as yet unproven - usurpation of the Throne itself

3. Abstain from dishonest dealings. This might include endorsing the overthrow of elected governments, unconditional, generations long support for gangster-like elements in the Thai military, looking the other way as sex tourism is used to promote the Thai economy, refusing to pay taxes, using lesse majeste to jail all opponents, practicing usery at the Siam Commercial bank to make a profit off the backs of one’s own subjects, refusing to advocate for the political enfranchisement and economic emancipation of poor and dark skinned subjects and treating the territory of Isaan as a conquered economic colony.

4. Abstain from illegitimate sex. No one knows if Bhumibol had any affairs, but at the end of 1957 the Queen’s younger sister Busba became pregnant with no known publicly recognized suitor. She later married a guy who was not her boyfriend. She had a daughter and divorced a few years later. While the Busba affair cannot be proven, it is widely known that illegitimate sex is promoted as 10% of the Thai national GDP is based upon a certain kind of ‘tourism’. In defense, Thai prostitution is claimed to be part of Thai culture, but it increased dramatically when American soldiers – the long term defenders and promoters of Bhumibol’s monarchy - occupied bases in Thailand in the 1960s. And because the king is the center of ‘Thai culture’ he carries ultimate responsibility for continuation of this moral and economic exploitation of his subjects. 5. Try to help others to lead a peaceful and honorable life. Including his son, who would definitely not pass provision #4 and who was sent to the best military school in Australia, and is known to make videos of his wife crawling submissively on the floor and holding lavish parties for his dog while Thai people sweat and labor for starvation wages. The Buddhist king sent his son to military school(!!!) rather than send him to study philosophy, languages, history, religion, ethics, politics, sciences or any other subject besides killing. Economic policy in Thailand has zealously followed the “free market” ideology which has turned the country into a low-wage plantation, exploited by foreign corporations. Under Bhumibol’s economic stewardship, Thailand has failed to follow documented and obviously successful protectionist practices used by Korea, Taiwan and Singapore to establish economic sovereignty and become rich, developed first world countries. This may be considered the price of slavishly promoting and sponsoring corrupt, despotic, opportunistic military leaders who kow tow to Bhumibol's throne, but who also take every opportunity to loot the country and people of Thailand. Right Livelihood - abstaining from making a living through a profession that brings harm to others, such as:

1. Trading in arms or lethal weapons The king is Commander in Chief of the Thai military, both nominally and in actuality. Thus he holds ultimate responsibility for their actions, corruption and misdeeds – although you would never believe this given the craven treatment of the fact by all involved, including the Thai media. The Thai military is Bhumibol’s personal mercenary army and guarantor of monarchist power. The king has been up to his neck in military intrigue for decades. This began in 1953 when Bhumibol adopted General Phao’s brigade, (i.e., runners of Phao’s drug and protection rackets) known as The Border Patrol Police (BPP) as being exclusively responsible for protection of the Thai king. 2. Intoxicating drinks and poisons One of the easiest rules to follow. This king smoked and drank openly for almost 40 years. A Dharmaraja indeed. 3. Killing animals This king is not and has never at any time been reported to be a vegetarian

4. Cheating This should be avoided, except in politics, where the king’s view will prevail at any cost to fairness, democracy, truth, or the views and opinions of his subjects. Live by a profession which is honorable, blameless and innocent of harm to others. Buddhism is strongly opposed to any kind of war. War should be avoided, except against Vietnam, when the benefactor of your excesses – The USA - demands your submission. A nation lead by a Dharmaraja should never engage in aggressive war, except against the people of Cambodia and Laos who have long suffered under the Chakri Buddhist war machine of Thailand. Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood - these three factors constitute Ethical Conduct which aims at promoting happy and harmonious life both for the individual and for society. This moral conduct is considered as the indispensable foundation, for all higher spiritual development is not possible without this moral basis. ________________

This is the path. It is inconceivable that the king of Thailand and his advisers were unaware of these practical proscriptions made by the Buddha himself. To think that Bhumibol spent the entirety of his rule in direct contempt of so many of these practices suggests an unconscionable failure of character and abdication of responsibility. His corruption of the Dharmaraja must rank as one of the ultimate Buddhist transgressions in modern history. Any excuse or rationalization for the king’s actions – however well-meaning they may have been - must be measured against their impact upon Thailand. In the Buddhist year of 2553, The king of Thailand has bequeathed unto his subjects a totalitarian dictatorship which bases its power on violence, censorship, big-brother style policing of the press and the internet, the termination of free expression in defense of monarchist power, and total intimidation of free thought, Today in Thailand, the most lawless and sociopathic acts go unpunished as long as they support the monarchy.

Children are hounded by the police for ideological political crimes. University students who should be practicing inquiry and asking questions are blacklisted and hounded by dogmatic professors. University theater is vetted for Soviet style party-line purity. The entire structure of the Thai economy is set up to exploit the labor of large sections of the population in order to enrich a tiny pro-monarchist elite - including the king himself who will at the expense of his kingdom, die as one of the richest persons on earth. Prostitution is rampant in Thailand and tolerated at every level. A fish rots from the head. Sane economic reforms that might benefit the poor who are driven by desperation to work in these appalling conditions have been studiously ignored by monarchists for generations. The structural and cultural sell-out to foreigners in general and Washington in particular has been total. Reliance on foreign companies to create jobs and employment is rampant and functions as an economic cancer. The Thai population continues to be terrorized by the lesse majeste law, which sends people to prison for decades for crimes of speech, while murderers might at the same time, be jailed for as little as 3 years. The judicial system – entirely appointed by the king – is completely partisan and ideologically committed to preservation of the monarchy at the expense of justice. The majority of the Thai population that demands enfranchisement and recognition of their votes have been deemed an enemy of the state and thus of the monarchy. 149 protesters were killed in April-May of 2010 and over 3000 people were sent to the hospital without comment from the monarchy. So far not a single person has been held accountable or responsible for these acts. The king is the nominal head of the armed forces and thus he carries the ultimate responsibility for persons acting in his name, but as yet not one person from his camp has acknowledged the magnitude of the tragedy. The institution of the Dharmaraja could not have been more corrupted if there was a demonic alien invasion with a plan to destroy its honor and integrity forever. The betrayal of Thailand has been almost total and absolutely catastrophic in its impact.

However, because of Bhumibol’s Dharmaraja rule-of-terror, no Thai person who values their life, family or career will ever publicly acknowledge any of these criticisms. Honest historians will have the final say on the success or failure of Bhumibol in his role as Thailand’s Dharma King. Appendix 1 – Heart Sutra from the Monkey King

Old Master, you have forgotten the one about eye, ear, nose, tongue, body. Those of us who have left the family should see no fault with our eyes, hear no sound with our ears, should smell no smell with our noses, should taste no taste with our tongues. Our bodies should have no knowledge of heat or cold, and our minds should gather no vain thoughts. This is called the extermination of the 6 robbers. But look at you now...Though you may be on your way to seek scriptures, the mind is full of vain thoughts. Fearing the demons, you are unwilling to risk your life. Desiring vegetarian food you arouse your tongue. Loving fragrance and sweetness, you provoke your nose. Listening to sounds, you disturb your ears. Looking at things and events, you fix your eyes. You have, in sum, assembled all the 6 robbers together. How could you possibly get to the Western Heaven to see Buddha? - The Monkey King, "Journey to the West" by Wu Ch'eng En

Appendix 2 - The remaining elements of the Noble Eightfold path: Mental Discipline Right Effort Right Mindfulness Right Concentration Right effort is the energetic will 1. to prevent evil and unwholesome states of mind from arising 2. to get rid of such evil and unwholesome states that have already arisen 3. to produce and to cause to arise good and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen 4. to develop and bring to perfection good and wholesome states of mind that are already present

Right Mindfulness is to be diligently aware, mindful and attentive with regard to 1. Activities of the Body (Kaya) 2. Sensations or Feelings (Vedana) 3. Activities of the mind (Citta) 4. Ideas, Thoughts, Conceptions and Things (dharma) A. Breathing and Meditation B. How feelings and sensations appear and disappear within C. One should be aware whether one's mind is lustful, given to hatred, deluded, distracted, etc... D. Know the nature of thoughts and conceptions, how they appear and disappear. How they are developed and how they are destroyed. Right Concentration - leading to the 4 stages of Dyana (recueillement or recollection) 1st The first stage of Dhyana - Passionate desires and certain unwholesome thoughts like lust, ill-will, languor, worry, restlessness and skeptical doubt are discarded - and feelings of joy and happiness are maintained. 2nd - All intellectual activities are suppressed. Tranquility and one-pointedness of mind are developed, joy and happiness are retained 3rd - Joy also disappears and happiness and mindfulness remains 4th - All sensation; joy, sorrow, happiness and unhappiness disappear. Equanimity and Awareness remain

Wisdom Right Thought = thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment and thoughts of love and non-violence are extended to all beings. Thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred and violence are the result of lack of wisdom - in all spheres of life whether individual social or political. Right Understanding (samma ditthi) is the understanding of things as they are. This is the wisdom that sees ultimate reality. Reduced ultimately to understanding of the 4 Noble Truths. Mental penetration (pativedha) is seeing things in their true nature, without name and label. This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from all impurity and is fully developed.

It should be understood that this path is not religious. It has nothing to do with belief, prayer, worship or ceremony.

The 4 Noble Truths 1. Dukka - The nature of life is suffering. Understand it clearly and completely. (parinneyya) 2. The Origin of Dukka is Desire or Thirst accompanied by all other passions, defilements and impurities. Understanding is not sufficient.Our function is to discard, eliminate and destroy it. (pahatabba) 3. Cessation of Dukka - Nirvana -The Absolute Truth / The Ultimate Reality. Our function is to realize it. (sacchikatabba) 4. Realize Nirvana - Knowledge of the Path is not enough. Follow it and Keep to it. (bhavetabba)

Understanding May 2010 in Thailand as blowback from the Thai occupation of Laos in 1827 Friday, July 9, 2010 at 4:01pm A few years back I met a small Thai family on Koh Samet. When I asked “Where are you from?” They said they were “Lao”. Wow, man… I never met anybody from Laos before. But as we talked more they said they were actually Thai citizens from around Udon Thani which is in northern Thailand. I was quite amazed by this encounter. I could hardly believe that Thai people would self-identify themselves as Lao. This was new to me. I wrote it off at the time as some Lao family immigrating to Thailand years ago and then stuck with their Lao identity in the same way that Italian-Americans would keep their Italian identity. But I was wrong. The Lao Rabbit Hole in Thailand goes much deeper. The Lao identity, experience and language are actually an integral part of the cultural fabric of the provinces that stretch from Khorat up to Nhong Khai on the border of modern Laos.

Showing the Thai Kingdom of Ayuthaya, the Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang and the Lanna Kingdom of Chiang Mai. History of Thailand and Isaan Thailand is best understood as an imperial, conquering, mini-USA in the heart of southeast asia.

The original Thais were vassal subjects of the Khmer or Cambodian Empire of Angkor. As Angkor declined, the Thais claimed their independence. Later, the Thais fought and subjugated the Kingdom of Lanna which now makes up northern Thailand around Chiang Mai. In the 1600s the Thais conquered the Islamic provinces in the south along the Malay border and also captured Andaman sea ports from Burma. In 1778, the Thai armies (under King Taksin) marched on Vientiane, the Lao capital. The Thai army looted the city and stole its most sacred treasure, the Emerald Buddha. This little green stature was taken to Bangkok, where it remains to this day - in the heart of the Thai King’s palace. (Specifically in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha where the Thai King goes to pray. Can anyone besides me see the symbolism here?). The mighty Lao, who didn’t take things sitting down in those days, rose up and recaptured their lost territory all the way down to Khorat, only to be pushed back to Vientiane by the Thais. In 1827 Vientiane was burned to the ground by the Thai army. The Lao territory which makes up modern day Isaan was annexed/occupied by the Thai state and Thai dominance of Isaan was insured for generations to come. Isaan, economic colony of the Thai state and ultra-rice-basket of SE Asia. Isaan Since that time, the proscribed primary function for the people of Isaan - within the context of Thai capitalism - is to provide cheap labor for the Thai economy. Isaan is and has been crucial to the economic success of Thailand in the same way that slaves - who represented tightly controlled human power and energy - helped to insure the economic dominance of Rome and Sparta in ancient Europe, and The United States of America in more recent times. Despite growth and development, Isaan is still a poor, backwater second-class/low-class farming area of Thailand. The people from there are like Thai Rodney Dangerfields - they just can’t get any respect. According to Wikipedia: The cultural separation from Central Thailand, combined with the region’s poverty and the typically dark skin of its people, has encouraged a considerable amount of discrimination against the people of Isaan … Even though many Isaan people now work in the cities rather than in the fields, many hold lower-status jobs such as construction workers, stall vendors and tuk-tuk taxi drivers, and discriminatory attitudes have been known to persist with many Thai-Chinese inhabitants. These poor people are the natural constituency of the hated red shirt movement. Many of the red shirts are are dis-enfranchised and poor people from Isaan. Furthermore we can see the traditional Thai contempt for Isaan in the way the red shirts were basically mowed down with live gunfire in the months of April and May 2010:

Spring protests worldwide 2010 Canada G20 - casualties 0 - 900 people were arrested Greece - deaths 3 - arrests 37 Thailand - deaths over 150 + injured over 2000 This is just one example of how people from Isaan do not even reach the level of human consideration in the minds of many in Thailand (I know this is a twisted claim but my personal citations are available anytime if you want them). My opinion is that the self-identified “Lao” people of Isaan have had it up to their eyeballs with being second-class vassals of the Thais. The red shirt movement should at least be understood in the context of the long occupied and exploited people of Isaan who are wishing for greater autonomy and opportunity in modern Thailand - and thus far not getting it. If the powers that be in Thailand can’t handle Isaan, I suspect that in the end Isaan will handle Thailand very well, thank you.

Yellow Shirt Psychological Problems Part I Saturday, August 7, 2010 at 6:15pm Two psychological tactics - or defense mechanisms - that I see used over and over by Yellow Shirt supporters are: (1) Projection and (2) The Fundamental Attribution Error (also called Actor–observer bias or Group attribution error) ________________________________________________________

Projection Psychological projection is a form of defense mechanism in which someone attributes thoughts, feelings, and ideas which are perceived as undesirable to someone else. Yellow shirt supporters will endlessly characterize the Red Shirts as "dangerous, violent, terrorist thugs with no respect for the rule of law". Following are real actions taken by Yellow Shirt supporters and the Yellow Shirt government: (1) Killing unarmed protesters There were 20,000+ Red Shirt protesters - 90 were killed and 2000 wounded by the Thai military using live bullets. In total, 24 weapons were produced by military investigators to prove that the 20,000 protesters were "armed and dangerous terrorists". (2) Abrogating critical sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and continuing a State of Emergency with no protests or anti-government activities in almost 3 months. http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV 4&chapter=4&lang=en#EndDec (3) Bullying and intimidating young students The 16 year-old high school student charged with violating the Emergency Decree has undergone a psychological examination and is scheduled to receive psychotherapy http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/1967 Ms. Natthakarn, a poster of messages in facebook has been denied enrollment into the Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University. According to the Dean, her personality would not help her to get along with fellow students. http://facthai.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/lese-majeste-rumours-deny freshie-university-place-manager/

(4) Threatening and intimidating little Cambodia - one of the poorest countries in the world over ownership of Preah Vihear temple - borders of which were decided and agreed in the 1910s by Thailand during French colonization of Cambodia, and debated and finalized in the 1960s by UNESCO - with the Cambodian position being argued by former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson Who exactly are the "dangerous, violent, terrorist thugs with no respect for the rule of law" in these 4 cases? Psychological projection is a form of defense mechanism in which someone attributes thoughts, feelings, and ideas which are perceived as undesirable to someone else. The concept of psychological projection was developed by Sigmund Freud, who believed that people used psychological projection to reduce their own stress or feelings of guilt, thus protecting themselves psychologically. In classical psychology, projection is always seen as a defense mechanism that occurs when a person's own unacceptable or threatening feelings are repressed and then attributed to someone else. Projection can also be established as a means of obtaining or justifying certain actions that would normally be found atrocious or heinous (like murder and bullying). This often means projecting false accusations, information, etc. onto an individual for the sole purpose of maintaining a self created illusion (self-serving bias). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The second problem is

Fallacy of Attribution -The Fundamental Attribution Error occurs when personality-based explanations are overvalued to describe behaviors of members of an out group, while under-valuing situational or environmental explanations for those behaviors. Yellow Shirts constantly say that Red Shirts "are ~all~ crazed super violent thugs and criminals." The Red shirts are mostly poor and rural people of Thailand who voted for Thaksin Shinawatra in 2001 and 2005. The results of these elections were overturned by a military coup in 2006. No general election has been held in Thailand since that time. Yellow Shirts have only achieved power through judicial decisions and parliamentary votes - never through a popular vote. Many Red Shirts have been exploited in low-wage jobs and have lived in appalling impoverished conditions across Thailand for decades. Don't you think that denial of the ballot, low-wages and bad living conditions might have contributed to the actions of the Red Shirt demonstrators?

Never mind. It's a moot point for Yellow debaters. They think the Red Shirts are all completely morally corrupt human beings who should never be trusted for any reason. What are the causes of the Fundamental Attribution Error? 1. Locus - Related to feelings of low self-esteem and loss of agency. 2. Stability - if situational factors that contributed to the Red Shirt actions are addressed, the entire political economy of Thailand would need to be rearranged, resulting in Yellow Shirt loss of privilege. 3. Controllability - If we feel responsible for our failures, we may feel guilt. Failing at a task we cannot control (like winning elections) can lead to shame or anger. What is to be done? First, understand that Yellow Shirt people are deeply psychologically wounded and are operating under conditions of extremely low-self esteem and perceived loss of agency in the world. After all, they have ruled Thailand using the military and monarchy for generations. They just can't seem to adapt and reconcile modern concepts like democracy, human rights and freedom of expression and they see these concepts as a threat to their positions of comfort and privilege. Also, It is important to remember this famous quote: "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." -Friedrich Nietzsche Yellow Shirt tactics are extremely destructive both psychologically and socially. Don't let them draw you into their psychosis. Don't allow them to project their psychological trauma onto you. Third, maintain your strength and persevere. Yellow people are in a very weak and tenuous position. They can't win elections, their sponsor the King has been in the hospital for months, the benefactors of the King - the US government and the US military - are overstretched, in debt and in shaky positions themselves. None of these conditions bode well for Yellow people. The Yellow shirt program is operating purely on emotional energy. They are not operating on rational grounds. They cannot and will not sustain this posture forever. Make your plans carefully and protect yourself. Keep your eyes and ears open. A system as fragile as theirs will blow apart under the slightest wind. You should be ready to step in with a comprehensive new government as soon as the yellow program passes from the scene. Good Luck And thank you for your support.

Yellow Shirt Psychology - Part II: The Right Wing Authoritarian Personality Type Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 7:53pm Right-Wing Authoritarians (RWAs) display the following personality characteristics: 1. Highly Compartmentalized Minds 2. Illogical Thinking 3. Profound 'In-group' centrism 4. Dogmatism (Inability to admit they are wrong) These traits are outlined in Bob Altemeyer's research on Right-Wing Authoritarian psychology. It is important to understand this psychology because there are so many Right-Wing Authoritarian people in the world. The personality traits are: Compartmentalized minds - This is also called 'doublethink' or the ability to hold contradictory ideas in one's head at the same time, or the ability to maintain cognitive dissonance. Accordingly, this ability results directly in the acceptance of Double Standards, acceptance of Hypocrisy, and Blindness To Oneself. Illogical Thinking - Logic and deductive reasoning are dangerous to Compartmentalized Thinking. Logic destroys the ability to maintain contradictory notions. This is why RWAs often simply don't want to hear the facts or listen to the truth. Facts and the truth are inconvenient for this kind of thinking. Delusions and inability 'to see the world as it really is' are problems associated with Illogical Thinking. In-group centrism -The third important factor is the need to belong to a group. RWAs don't feel comfortable being alone or thinking for themselves. Belonging to an "in-group" follows the natural human tendency to find safety in numbers. It also relieves the RWA person of the necessity of thinking for themselves, since other people in their group have already done the thinking and provided the answers for them. Group belonging is a natural human emotion, but in RWA people, this emotion is taken to extremes. Dogmatism or Inability to Admit They Are Wrong

This defense amounts to: "I think I am right. Therefore I am right." Don't talk to me. End of discussion. -Facts don't matter, -The truth doesn't matter. -Logic and reason don't matter. -Only agreement with the in-group matters Dogmatism is the last line of defense. For an RWA person to admit that they are wrong means that all the members of their "in-group" are wrong too. This destroys the group cohesiveness and brings fear back into the mind of the RWA person. Since fear must be avoided at any cost, the facts, the truth and reality are thrown out the window. It is almost impossible to change the RWA mindset.Even if you win an argument with an RWA person and prove them wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt, they will continue to support their opinion and belief. In fact, losing an argument often makes an RWA person's commitment to their wrong opinion even stronger. ___________ Right-Wing Authoritarians are profoundly insecure both emotionally and psychologically. They seek comfort within a group of people who share their views. They believe this group will provide security and a sense of belonging. Not surprisingly, the Right-Wing Authoritarian is attracted to the social groups which utilize the most violence. Violent groups provide the easiest and greatest sense of security for the RWA Personality Type. RWAs care primarily about security and belonging and little for ethics or morality. Examples of groups with powerful means of violence include the military and the police, but might also include unseemly tough guys, criminals, thugs, gangsters and warlords. Once "security" is achieved, the Right Wing Authoritarian will rationalize (or make an excuse for) any and all actions that were taken to obtain cherished security and safety - no matter how abhorrent those actions. Laws don't matter, facts don't matter, justice doesn't matter, and the means don't matter to an RWA person. The end goal of feeling safe, secure and belonging to a powerful group are the only things that matter. When dealing with a RWA person, you should proceed with the understanding that they are in a very vulnerable and terrified psychological state. Accordingly, all their words and actions seek relief from this state of terror. This is why corrupt politicians - like Bush and Abhisit - resort to the use of words like "terror", "terrorism" and "terrorist". These strong words whip the already scared RWA person into an emotional frenzy. And in this agitated state, the RWA person is suggestible and ready to accept any and all violence and injustice in order to remove perceived threats.

Rational people who use their intellect, logic and reason are not easily manipulated in this way. But, a large part of the human population falls squarely into the RWA personality type - and they can be convinced to accept any level of corruption, crime, violence, injustice and insanity simply to make their fear go away. Portrait of Right Wing Authoritarians: Thailand's Yellow Shirts Yellow Shirts have never and probably will never win a popular political election again in Thailand. Therefore they are scared of losing their long held traditional privileges. Yellow Shirts will support all manner of injustice - including killing witch hunting, censorship and jailing of people with whom they disagree. All this in order to maintain the privilege of their position and feeling of group belonging. Endless litanies of illogical rationalizations for these horrors are presented daily in the conservative Thai media, as well as up and down all layers of Thai society that support the Yellow Shirt program. Every twisted piece of illogical and immoral crap is served up as justification for postponing a popular election which might jeopardize illegitimate Yellow Shirt privilege. Red Shirts are perceived of and painted as 'terrorists' because Reds have valid reasons and rational arguments for having a democratic voice in Thai society. Red Shirt people, being the majority of Thailand's population, represent the end of the Yellow Shirt's unjust, unequal and exploitative privilege. This is why Red Shirts suffer physical intimidation and surveillance because they are the embodiment of the future of Thai society. Thus we constantly see Abhisit making appeals to public "order" before popular elections can be held. But the order to which he appeals is the traditional order of social inequality, exploitation and injustice. No rational person can accept such an absurdity. But luckily, many of his Yellow Shirt followers are non-rational Right Wing Authoritarians. Abhisit stokes fears and paranoia with words like "terrorism" in order to use the Yellow Shirt's fearful mental condition to maintain an unjust social and economic system. This joke is starting to wear very thin. Today, concepts like universal justice and "Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood" are accepted in almost every country around the world. But in Thailand, these ideas invoke fear and hatred in Yellow Shirt people. Therefore, they will rationalize injustice, violence, state-sanctioned murder, bullying, intimidation, witch hunting, mental and physical torture, censorship, etc, as necessary to preserve their sense of "order". Yellow Shirts will never admit that their political positions and practices are a moral cesspool. Any suggestion that their atrocities will, in the long-run, ultimately damage themselves as well as their political position are brushed aside - because the most important things to Yellow Shirts are immediate security and privilege - consequences be damned. Bob Altemeyer's research on Right-Wing Authoritarian psychology is available here: http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf Take Dr. Bob's Political Psychology Quiz here: http://apps.facebook.com/quizcreator/quizzes/205753/play

The Appeal of Sociopathic Permissivity - Thailand Yellow Shirt Psychology - Part 3 Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 10:16pm "Nothing is forbidden in my faith. Look at the Sun for as long as you want. This godhead forbids you nothing." - Radovan Karadžić The appeal of Thai Yellow-shirt nationalism carries an underlying, unstated but implicit ascendancy of lawless freedom for Yellow Shirt supporters, who can now kill, steal, persecute, loot and intimidate their opponents with abandon - and with full sanction and complicity of the highest elements of the Thai state, including the monarchy, the military and the business elite. Such 'liberating' sociopathic circumstances have arisen throughout recent history and are part and parcel of the appeal of right wing authoritarian movements. The Yellow-shirt phenomenon should not be understood as conservative or traditional in any way, but as a means for achieving an obscene form of freedom that is not available through traditional social formations. The underlying, unspoken but implied message is something akin to this: "Follow the monarchy's yellow program and terrorize, pillage and persecute the poor red shirt supporters without fear or punishment. Accept the PAD program and you too can enjoy (for now) the untouchable unaccountable power of the traditional Thai elite, with the full support and approval of the king, the PM and all the rich folks in Thailand." What poor, powerless, brown-nosing, yellow-bellied schlub wouldn't fall for such a great moment of radical permissivity ? _____________ Let's examine a few specific examples of the appeal generated by Right-Wing Authoritarian permissiveness and 'freedom' from Slavoj Žižek's speech on "Politeness and Civility":

1) Here is an excerpt from Žižek's interview with hardcore Serbian Nationalists explaining why they are what they are:

"Modern life is all too well regulated. With all it's politically correct rules. My God...If I want to live in a free Western society, I cannot even beat my wife...I cannot rape a nice girl if I see her...I cannot beat a friend...I cannot swear...I cannot whatever." For the Right Wing Authoritarian, liberal society is over-regulated and stiff-legged. For them, recognizing yourself and identifying yourself as a fundamentalist nationalist means a new freedom. I am a nationalist, which means, on behalf of my nation I can do whatever I want. Let's invade Bosnia [or Cambodia], let's kill, let's rape, let's rob and so on and so on. This is a crucial element of so-called totalitarian appeal.

2) Theodor Adorno wrote of Hitler's public messages vs. his implied permissivity. The overt message was this: I am now a good father. The moral decadence and social cowardice of the Weimar period is over. Now I want from you order, sacrifice for Germany, and discipline. That is the the public discourse. But it was always supplemented by this implicit obscenity: "Join me, play my game, and we can have fun killing the Jews."

3) Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Serbian province in Bosnia was an accused war criminal, admittedly corrupt psychiatrist, but also a poet. This is from one of his poems dedicated to "Izlet Sarajlic": "Nothing is forbidden in my faith There is loving and drinking And looking at the Sun for as long as you want This godhead forbids you nothing" Imagine a state in which the godhead forbids you nothing. Does that sound a bit like Abhisit's modern PAD Thailand-for-the-yellow-shirts, ruled by a divine King?

4) Alexander Teahlip, a leading Yougoslav journalist on why the Milosovic regime functioned in Serbia: "Milosovic gave us the right to carry weapons. He gave us the right to solve all our problems with weapons. He also gave us the right to drive stolen cars. Milosovic changed the daily life of Serbs into one great holiday and allowed us all to feel like high school pupils on a graduation trip. Which meant that nothing, but really nothing of what you do can be punishable."

A lawless state with unlimited freedom and benefits for those faithful to the rulers has always had an appeal. The only problem is that all these societies ended in disaster with thousands killed and their entire social infrastructure decimated or burned to the ground. Will Thailand's yellow shirts see the folly of their choices and the ruinous path that they are on? My guess is that the yellow cabal will give up their pathological criminal state only when those Thais who believe in fairness, justice, and the rule of law forcibly remove it from their hands. Excerpts from Slavoj Žižek's speech on "Politeness and Civility in the Function of Contemporary Ideology" - September 9, 2008.

http://wimpywombat.net/slavojzizek/slavoj_zizek_politeness_and_civility/slavoj_zizek_politen e ss_and_civility.mp3

Letter to Thomas Fuller of the New York Times regarding "After Upheaval, Not All Is Well With Thai Youth" Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 2:11pm Dear Mr. Fuller, Thank you so much for your article on the situation for young people in Thailand. More people in the world need to know what is happening in Thailand. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/world/asia/25iht-thai.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 I worked as an elementary school, private language, and university teacher in Thailand for the past two years. I left Thailand in July because it was clear that any support for my Red Shirt students would land me in a Thai prison. Accordingly, I think your reporting on the situation in Thailand missed a few of the following crucial points: 1. All the economic opportunity and the entire political economy in Thailand are skewed to benefit the "elite" which makes up 5% or less of the Thai population. Thailand has some of the greatest income inequality on earth. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51374 2. The poor provinces of the northeast (Isaan) - are treated as an economic colony by the Bangkok elite. And Isaan people are second-class citizens who are seen as an expendable, ready pool of cheap labor for dead-end jobs. Under no circumstances will this colonized population be allowed a democratic voice in the government, or a fair say in their economic destiny. 3. Thailand's industry - such that it is - includes a strong contingent of foreign companies. And several areas like auto manufacture are dominated by non-Thai companies. This guarantees at least 1/2 of every dollar (baht) in capital that is produced by Thai labor in these foreign enterprises will be shipped out of Thailand. 4. Even high status jobs like engineer (including many of my students) are paid much lower wages than other Asian or Western countries. My highly educated Thai students often survived long shifts by way of instant noodles and energy drinks. 5. Teachers in Thailand must be ideological yellow shirts and supporters of unaccountable Thai hierarchies like the military and the monarchy. Otherwise, the teachers will be charged with various crimes, jailed or forced to flee the country (for example Giles Ungpakorn http://wdpress.blog.co.uk/ ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx9vP12-4o0 ).

Monarchist yellow shirt teachers who harass and intimidate students will not face repercussions. http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/defending-the-indefensible/ 6. Students who express dissenting or free-thinking opinions in public or on facebook will find their families subjected to police harassment, themselves threatened with psychotherapy, physical threats or denied entry to university. Creative outlets, like theater, must be vetted and censored for ideological purity - just like the old Soviet Union. http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/192052/teaching-our-kids-about-democracy-and dictatorship http://facthai.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/lese-majeste-rumours-deny-freshie-university-place manager/ http://www.prachatai3.info/english/node/1973 7. The mantra in Thailand is "everyone loves the king." But to even speak a different opinion (in public or online) will result in an 18 year jail sentence (similar to the old Soviet Union). Refusal to stand for Royalist Public Relations vignettes in cinemas will result in threats of violence and legal charges. Therefore it must be understood that - to a considerable degree - the Thai king rules, maintains power, and receives his love and respect - through coercion, threats, intimidation and violence. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/152894/18-years-in-jail-for-da-torpedo http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1027417/Woman-arrested-boycotting anthem-divine-Thai-king.html 8. Appeals to change the above circumstances will be met with jail, severe harassment, destruction of livelihoods or even death. 9. Appeals to expand democracy in Thailand will be met with bullets - as we saw in April and May of this year. http://www.thethaireport.com/thethaireport/May_2010_Protest_Archive.html 10. Furthermore, the royals of Thailand have been the beneficiaries of American patronage since the early 1950s when the CIA and US military began forging communist publications attacking the King, and the US government began delivering "aid" to Thailand which did not end up in the hands of Thai people, but mostly ended up in the hands of corrupt militarists and other supporters of the monarchy. http://thequickandthedead.tumblr.com/ Over the years, the monarchy and elite institutions of Thailand have been staunch US allies. Therefore it must be understood that The United States is the one country one earth with the real power to put an end to these corrupt, anti-democratic practices in Thailand. However, after the massacre of pro-democracy Red Shirt demonstrators in April and May of 2010, the US state department has issued little more than a few tepid, useless remarks in support of Thai

democracy. Functionally and practically the United States has done nothing to support the common Thai people or change the political situation in Thailand. The corrupt institutional Thai hierarchies have been, are now, and presumably always will be America's useful tools in Southeast Asia. Under such dead-end hopeless social circumstances - in a society trapped under the boot of a monarchist/militarist axis - with tacit, but full support from the USA - can you blame Thai children and students for turning to dead-end, hopeless solutions like drugs alcohol, violence and pre-mature sex? What other solutions can you suggest? If you, or the unelected royalist government of Mr. Abhisit and Mr. Korn have any, I would surely like to hear them.

Thailand's GDP Growth is as Fake as Abhisit's commitment to democracy - the result of money printing. Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 11:25am Sorry kids - the numbers don't lie. The following link shows money supply in Thailand by the Bank of Thailand http://www2.bot.or.th/statistics/ReportPage.aspx?reportID=7&language=eng Change the dates to Dec 2008 when "The One" took power. Money supply is up 9% in 1.5 years -- During negative and falling Thailand GDP growth in 2009! That means today's Thailand 'growth' is as fake as Abhist's commitment to free speech and democracy...He's a money printer, a student of Bernanke and Greenspan. Relatively speaking, he expects 10% growth because he increased the money supply by 10%. A true economic genius! Printing baht is a parlor trick. GDP is only a number. It has no relation to real value or purchasing power. If Abhisit prints enough baht out of thin air, he can make the GDP increase by 50%, 100% or 10,000,000% year-over-year like it does in Zimbabwe. If we go only by GDP, Zimbabwe has the highest economic 'growth' on the planet...they are also the poorest country on earth. Print money, create inflation, devalue the baht, appease exporters (i.e. foreign companies) that profit from exploitation of low-wage Thai labor, thereby ruin the purchasing power of everyday Thais. You go boy... Like I said yesterday: Abhisit is not a patriot. He doesn't even represent Thailand, Thai people or Thai interests. He is a confidence man and trained puppet fronting for ruthless international capital. Abhisit is just waiting for the day when he retires from PM so he can go work for Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan or some hedge fund in London -> where he can collect his reward for ripping off the Thai people.

Fair Process and Procedural Justice: Reconciliation according to the Harvard Business School and The Case of Thailand 2010 Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 11:25am If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother. - Epictetus Professor Michael A. Roberto who taught at the Harvard Business School, says all decisions concerning organizations - like a country, for example - must take place with the goal of actually getting those decisions implemented. Decisions that are made unilaterally without perceived fairness and justice and without genuine consideration given to input from all sides will be doomed to failure. For a true reconciliation to take place, all members must feel united behind the decision as part of a team. Critical to this perception are the concepts of Fair Process and Procedural Justice What are the components of a fair process? 1. You must give people ample opportunity to express their views—and to discuss how and why they disagree with other group members. 2. People must feel that the decision-making process has been transparent (i.e., the deliberations have been relatively free of behind-the-scenes maneuvering). 3. They must believe that the leader listened carefully to them and considered their views thoughtfully and seriously before making a decision. 4. They must perceive that they had a genuine opportunity to influence the leader’s final decision. 5. They have to have a clear understanding of the rationale for the final decision. Put another way, fair process means a leader demonstrating genuine consideration of others’ views. To do that,leaders can and should do the following. 1. Provide a process road map at the outset of the decision process. 2. Reinforce an open mind-set. 3. Engage in active listening. 4. Explain their decision rationale.

5. Explain how others’ inputs were employed. 6. Express appreciation for everyone’s input. Have any of those factors taken place in Thailand since April-May 2010? ______________________________ The second important concept that is essential to implementing decisions is Procedural Legitimacy. Procedural legitimacy refers to the notion that a decision process is perceived to be consistent with certain socially acceptable and desirable norms of behavior. What types of actions in the decision process convey procedural legitimacy? 1. You can gather extensive amounts of data. 2. You can present many different alternatives. 3. You can conduct a great deal of formal analysis. 4. You can bring in outside experts and consultants. Fair process helps to build consensus, which in turn fosters effective implementation. Critical to Fair Process and Procedural Legitimacy is that people do not want to see a “charade of consultation” where the leader makes a decision, consults with their team, steers the discussion toward their preferred choice, and then announces the decision that they already made at the outset. Such a charade will be doomed to failure. _______________________ The Case of Thailand 2010 "When men have departed from the right way, it is no wonder that they stumble and fall." -Thomas Paine

Abhisit, the monarchy and the PAD are already showing signs of choking on their charade. Their inability to unilaterally implement a program of unity through vicious censorship, injustice, jail without charge, continued justification for military brutality and the attempted political genocide of the red shirt movement has become a tragic farce. The "state of emergency" which is critical to keeping the people of Thailand divided, and to maintaining illegitimate, unjust PAD and monarchist power has turned the whole jaundiced yellow program into an international joke. The fact that half the population of Thailand is now on the police watch list would be laughable if it was not resulting in real hardship and suffering for innocent people. Reconciliation as taught at Oxford to impostors like Abhisit obviously doesn't jibe with the Harvard Business School. The best course of action, if Abhist 'the Mark' wants to save his party, his country and his soul is to simply lighten up and accept that living in denial and foolishly trying to bend reality to PAD's perverted sense of "unity" will ultimately result in total disaster and complete failure.

The Other Side of The Clock Strikes 13 - A fictional rejoinder to a dystopian nightmare at BK Monday, October 4, 2010 at 12:09pm Screw those punks over at BK http://tinyurl.com/2d6vnj3 This is how the deal goes down..... It was a cool, cloudless night in December, 2011, shortly after national elections in Thailand were canceled unilaterally and indefinitely by the dictatorial Abhisit junta. Under cover of darkness a group of unidentified commandos in green uniforms penetrated the Chakri palace defenses in Bangkok. No witnesses survived inside the palace. The word "Ananda" was later found scrawled in blood on the walls of the King's chambers. Simultaneously, explosions rocked the Prime Minister's residence and the building structure collapsed instantly into its own footprint. No survivors were located. Vajiralongkorn, and all of his children, and the consort Srirasmi were suddenly discovered missing from the royal residence in Sukhothai Palace. Their bodies were never found. Overseas, all of the Thai royals met with spectacular car crashes and accidents on the same day. No living relative of King Bhumibol survived the ominous day.

Crowds took to the nighttime streets and began to march upon the residences and offices of high profile yellow shirt collaborators. Former Thailand PM Prem was dragged from his house and taken in a motorbike cavalcade to a dirty alleyway behind Soi Cowboy where he was pelted with garbage and mango cores by poor Isaan girls working nearby. He was last seen struggling beneath a pack of wild soi dogs ripping at the General's clothes and limbs as he tried in vain to escape. Many prominent yellow shirts were taken to Thammasart university where they were hung from trees by their ankles and beaten with chairs. Following the announcement of these tragedies. Thai military units went on instant alert and many tanks and soldiers entered civilian areas, firing blindly into homes and public buildings. Chaos was everywhere. Many innocent Thais lost their lives in a valiant struggle to disarm the Thai military. Many Thai soldiers - especially those from the poor provinces of Isaan mutinied against their superiors and were later decorated as national heroes.

The Thai navy went to sea after news of the chaos began to spread. Several royal properties near beachfronts on the Gulf of Thailand were vaporized under shelling. Queen Sirikit's neice, who was rumored to have been born from a tryst between the now dead Thai monarch Bhumibol and the former Queen's own sister Busba, Khun Suthawan Ladawan Sathirathai - the woman who served as Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of foreign affairs under the Thaksin Shinawatra government from 2001-2006 - was rushed to the National Assembly. Being the only remaining Chakri royal alive with a claim to the throne, she was sworn in as Thailand's first ever Queen of the Chakri Dynasty by monks from Wat Pathum where many innocent civilians had been gunned down during the military riots on May 19, 2010. Moments after she was sworn in, she signed over a distribution of the entire royal estate to the Treasury of Thailand. Shortly after she formally dissolved the monarchy as an institution of government in Thailand. In a stunning move, a new constitution (Thailand's 19th constitution since the long reign of Bhumibol) was passed in an emergency session of the legislature. The new constitution formally instituted a popular democratic system of government without a trace of monarchy. Thailand was declared to be a Free Republic for the first time in her history. Shockwaves went around the world. Germany and Laos were the first states to recognize the new government. The Americans were stunned to see their long trusted alliance with the Thai monarchy collapse completely in a matter of hours. But one by one, as the nations of the world began to recognize the new democratic government of Thailand, and American citizens in Boston dismantled the Bhimibol birthplace, the US government was dragged kicking and screaming to recognize The Free Republic of Thailand as a fledgling democracy.

A moral and practical analysis of Thailand's Yellow Shirt strategy and tactics and their prospects for the future Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 3:00pm My first highly emotional declaration following April-May in Thailand. Banned from a few English language websites in Thailand. 2 months later ain't a dang thing changed. I retract nothing. I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it. - Voltaire

On behalf of my non-computerized Thai peeps, the mo-cy drivers, “7” workers, bottle pickers, hotel cleaners, short order cooks, working girls and boys, beggars, farmers, bartenders, mechanics, school teachers, construction workers, garbage men, seamstresses, haircutters, desk clerks, unemployed grandmas, factory slaves, street sweepers, cabbies and other insignificant useless barely-human peons with whom the yellas don’t mingle, I deliver the following: We begin with the idea thrown about recently by the Yellow Shirt government that former PM Thaksin created the entire red shirt movement out of whole cloth by financing it from scratch. Danger Will “Yellaman” Robinson, Y’all can yak all you want about a ‘bought’ movement. The money from mr. tak was only the camel’s nose under the tent. Let me explain. I lived in Kingdom on and off for 7 yrs now. Met and spent time with the high and the low. I never cared 2 hoots about red or yella until there appeared a bunch of dead people in Bangkok last month. Since then, I have listened and read most attentively and widely and I personally know plenty of these Red Shirters who have exactly jack to do with Thaksin . They didn’t get one satang from Tak before, during, or after and they ~still~ pull for the Reds …and wouldn’t support a goofy yella if their life depended on it. OMFG! This is the awful smelly truth that is just too scary for some yellas to even think much less utter. That Thais - especially the untouchables of the northeast - should have any ideas about taking matters into their own hands, (OMG!) much less acting on these ideas (catch me I am about to faint) - this is an impossibility that could never be entertained in Thailand. That is, before now.

Thus we see the cowardly and weak-minded ‘state of emergency’ that is continuing indefinitely amid peace and business-as-usual. The only emergency existing is that the yellas couldn’t win a national election to keep the Prime Ministership even if they tried to buy it a-la Tak!!!! Catch me before I fall on the floor. Hahah I suppose this emergency will continue until all Thais are terrorized out of thinking and doing for themselves. Good luck with that. Or maybe if you shoot enough they’ll just change their vote patterns. Go-o-o-o-d L-u-ck. If you think this is a plan, (and many yellas seem to) then go ahead and try it …. I think history dares you….If this path is chosen, Bull Conner, apartheid South Africa, the Contras, the Burma army, the Israeli cops in Gaza, Jesse Helms, and the long list of those who would deny the right to vote will be made proud. Yours is obviously a plan to fail. That’s why y’all are acting so emotional and hysterical over the unconscious but obvious realization that the situation is Game Over and You Lost. But - probably in the interest of civility you are being allowed a reprieve period by the fates and the goddess of history (or is it those Isaan farmers?) . What you choose to do in this period is up to you but remember that if you want to succeed you must practice serious rational government in the best interest of the Thai state and not act out a comedy play by Moliere. You will not receive extra points for playing the fool or the bully. But if you act responsibly and with sincerity and humility towards all Thais - including the untouchables - you may improve your position and give yourselves a fighting chance. Or you can continue living on fantasy island and lose badly. It is your call. My sincere and honest guess is that Tak could die tomorrow and the red support would be just as strong - money or no money. The funny thing is that most yellas can’t even entertain this thought for a minute because it leaves their propaganda lines and various rationalizations in the lurch. My Brother yella tells me: “No legitimate popular protest with real grassroots support, and a real series of issues and grievances that should be discussed and addressed immediately, could ever exist in the North or anywhere within the perfection that is the current state of affairs today. Ideas like this, Sir, are simply unthinkable, ” and finally he concludes, “All those bad reddies who I hate musta been bought. Yeah - Yeah! that’s da ticket!” This is a realm of logic and conception of current reality informed by profound denial. Yet they are there brother yella. I see ‘em and talk with them every day. I should tell my brother that the arc of history is merciless and he needs to improve his analysis, his facts, his propaganda and his tactics or he will lose and lose badly. So I say—> if you yellas want a real policy to maintain your position that is not ultimately about mowing down Thais with live bullets, paying them mincemeat wages and keeping a boot on their throats forever, you must understand this —> The money from mr. tak was only the foot in the door. The spirit and soul of these human beings and families - real Thai human beings and families - who have suffered and are suffering most viciously under your ‘system’, and who you consider unworthy of democracy, humanity or equality are what is going to come through the door next. Obviously this is a fact that nobody in the yella camp is ready to deal with, or acknowledge. What is the plan? Are you going to shoot them? Shoot them all?

You can pontificate and opine that they are not coming or that their opinions and they themselves are not worthy , but let me tell ya’ll up there in the Kreung Thep muckety muck - I see ‘em all around me and I hear ‘em curse every day. Why your keister has not been yet hoisted upon its own petard is beyond me. Maybe you have wiggle room so you can be allowed to continue to make a bigger fool of yourself - in order to discredit your movement and philosophy completely and utterly before the eyes of history. I don’t know Obviously Thaksin is the scapegoat that, in your hysteria, prevents you from looking in the mirror or forming any kind of coherent, rational long term action that is consistent with reality and in your own best interest. Note to my yella brothers: If you don’t change the program and address the issues and give these people some of the things they want… if this willful intransigence in government continues, if elections become a thing of the past, if one more innocent Thai dies at your hand, if reconciliation means kissing your toot, then you will fall on your face and you will lose everything. You can’t try to build and exploit a feudal system in the 21st century and expect otherwise. Repeat the preceding phrases while banging your head against the wall if necessary until you understand. When those around you have nothing left to lose, then don’t be surprised when the next person to lose everything is you. You can rationalize ineffectively and entertainingly like this all you want…at the very least it shows you know how to use English. But ultimately the logic presented here only shows weakness of yella analysis and stubborn inability to face cold reality with humility. Thus y’all gonna lose. period. Sorry to break it to you. Like I said, the arc of history is merciless. You cannot hold her off with an M16 or with tear gas from an attack helicopter. I assume the more intelligent among you already realize this. Y’all yellas have been - and seems like in the not too distant future that you are about to be (again) - thoroughly and completely schooled by a bunch of punk dirt farmers. And you deserve every last iota of this indignity because you brought it on yourself. Every step of the way you stubbornly refused to look in the mirror and acknowledge their humanity or your own humanity. How much time does the charade have left before Libra balances the scales? months? weeks? days? hours? I don’t know but this is your warning. Lighten up, shorty. Study history - or don’t. Make total fools of yourselves or don’t. It’s up to you. …..What planet these yella brothers and sisters live on or have been writing from I do not know, but if y’all want to maintain and continue yella power, much less grow it, I suggest you come on down to the real Thailand ——- if you dare.

Reporter's bias in Sydney Morning Herald article on Thai Finance Minister Mr. Korn Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 3:24am The article is “Thailand's perfect solution” First, I have some problems with this writer's use of language. About the April-May protests in Bangkok he says: "the reds' violent uprising:" Violent? How many Thai soldiers and Yellow Shirt people were killed? Was it one? or two? And how many Red Shirts were killed? Was it 89 or 90 in May and about 60 in April? For a total of 149 Killed? And how many Red Shirts were injured or sent to the hospital? Wasn't it over 3000? This is a sloppy attribution of the adjective VIOLENT to the Red Shirts who - if you simply look at the numbers - were brutally attacked and massacred. This is creating a false image in the minds of Australians. Bad reporting. My Second problem: When talking about Thaksin, he calls him: "a bitter billionaire hurling bile from exile." This is a cute little rhyming alliteration, but there is no citation or proof about why Thaksin is 'bitter' and no explanation of or proof that what he said as so-called 'bile'. bitter and bile are negative words - that are again being attributed without citations or facts to back them up. This is, by any standard, sloppy reportage - bordering on slander - again, creating a false impression for Australians. And to top it off there is some bad grammar in the article. He says:

At the core of the red-yellow political division is deprived and cranky Thais Oops -> 'At the core...is....Thais' (??) The correct use is: 'At the core are Thais' Obviously this reporter - and his editors - thought core (single noun) needed an "is", and forgot that the subject "Thais" (plural noun) needs an "are". Just another case of being sloppy - with both facts and grammar. http://www.smh.com.au/business/thailands-perfect-solution-20100811-11zup.html

Translation of the Newsweek interview of Thailand's "Finance Minister" Korn Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 9:21am (My translations in bold) Korn Chatikavanij, Thailand's finance minister, is a quintessential policy wonk who managed to steer his country to a quick economic recovery, in large part due to (generous amounts of money printing and) a $30 billion stimulus package (paid for by Thai taxpayers) he devised. The Oxford-educated former investment banker …(before 2008 he was a creature of JP Morgan Chase, one of the owners of the US Federal Reserve Bank. JP Morgan spent most of the years 2002-2008 fraudulently selling worthless mortgage backed securities and worthless credit default swaps to unsuspecting buyers like teachers' Pension Funds, governments and other investors around the globe - including I am sure to Thailand. The fraud involved in these transactions was so immense that it brought the capitalist system to its knees and forced governments around the world to cough up trillions and trillions in taxpayer 'bailouts' that went directly to banks like JP Morgan Chase. If Korn wasn't directly involved in the transactions, he was surely in a position to know exactly what was going on.) …spoke with NEWSWEEK's Jerry Guo about the country's tumultuous politics and its economic potential. Excerpts: Q: At a time when Western economies are still struggling, Thailand is projected to reach 8 percent growth this year. What's driving this (besides money printing)? The fact that external demand has improved from 2009 levels has meant that those of us with open (for exploitation) economies in Southeast Asia will do well. Export has been strong to fellow Asian nations, so we have been somewhat protected from the [ongoing] weakness (and near economic collapse) in the eurozone and U.S. The biggest growth in terms of markets for us has been China and the ASEAN nations. We've also had a very successful government stimulus (to JP Morgan) since the beginning of 2009 (which came straight off the backs of Thailand's taxpayers). Q: What made Thailand's fiscal spending during the crisis so effective? We needed something (like free money for example) that would replace the disappearing external demand and replace it pretty quickly . The first step was designed for short-term impact: we literally wrote about 9 million checks to low-income households for $70 (and a grand total of $630 million - 2% of the total stimulus - with the other 98% likely going to banks including presumably Siam Commercial Bank, the king's bank - and JP Morgan) , in the belief that [they] would have the greatest elastic demand and we would be able to leverage that increased spending in the domestic economy.

(I can tell you right now, the overwhelming majority of those $70 checks went directly to big box stores Big C, Tesco and Carrefour. I’m not sure about Big C, but Tesco and Carrefour are ~foreign~ companies exploiting theThai plantation) That worked really quite well. On top of that, we also provided extra old-age stipends to about 6 million pensioners and provided income guarantees for 4 million farmers who were almost all in the low-income bracket. (the money was printed up out of nothing and stuck as debt on the back of Thai taxpayers. While it is great that old folks and farmers got some extra cash, they will pay for it down the road with much higher prices across the board - but then, it's the thought that counts). Q: Is any of this growth driven by manufacturers fleeing China as costs there increase? Countries like Vietnam and, to a different degree, Thailand somewhat benefited from that, but more Vietnam than us. They are more into low-cost manufacturing than we are (since Thailand helped to destroy their industrial capacity by bombing them into the stone age in the 1960s through hosting American troops and allowing American bombers to take off from Thai airports); we went through that about two decades ago. The biggest post-China opportunity...isn't taking over their manufacturing mantle, but accelerating urbanization and a demographic change—a high percentage of the Asian population will be retirees—in countries like India and China. Both these trends play to Thailand's strengths. Urbanization means increased food consumption (lets hope Thailand's rice crops don't fail) ; [retirees] means demand for travel (and surely the Chinese will want to travel to a country with a perpetual Emergency Situation, rather than hop on a plane to Hawaii or Taiwan or even the Phillipines where the government is not run by a bunch of incompetent demagogues.) Countries like Vietnam and, to a different degree, Thailand somewhat benefited from that, but more Vietnam than us. They are more into low-cost manufacturing than we are (since Thailand helped to destroy their industrial capacity by bombing them into the stone age in the 1960s through hosting American troops and allowing American bombers to take off from Thai airports); we went through that about two decades ago. The biggest post-China opportunity...isn't taking over their manufacturing mantle, but accelerating urbanization and a demographic change—a high percentage of the Asian population will be retirees—in countries like India and China. Both these trends play to Thailand's strengths. Urbanization means increased food consumption (lets hope Thailand's rice crops don't fail) ; [retirees] means demand for travel (and surely the Chinese will want to travel to a country with a perpetual Emergency Situation, rather than hop on a plane to Hawaii or Taiwan or even the Phillipines where the government is not run by a bunch of incompetent demagogues.)

Q: How will your government address the underlying social and economic problems brought to light by the so-called red-shirt protesters? There are three simultaneous approaches. One is a security approach, making sure we are not actually going after individual protesters but holding the ringleaders accountable legally (in our partisan kangaroo court system); we're in the process of filing charges. A second approach is addressing the issues that were raised: social inequality and poverty, issues that the government takes very seriously. For instance, we are working to refinance all loan-shark debt, which has been a cancer in our system. We've refinanced over 400,000 individual accounts (through money printing and saddling Thai taxpayers with more debt). We need to do more of this (money printing) and make people realize the government makes them a priority (until inflation eats up their buying power - then they can eat cake) . They don't need to protest. A third approach is the truth-and-reconciliation process, to find out what happened during the crackdown...This is being handled by an independent body (an independent body controlled and managed by the monarchist PAD), and we're hoping results will come within the year. Q: The Western narrative of the protests this spring was that it was a class struggle between urban and rural Thais. Is this accurate? I don't believe the Western narrative is correct. There is a genuine income-distribution gap (not a class issue ~smirk~). There are genuine differences in people's access to resources (not a class issue ~smirk~). All of these need to be addressed as quickly as we can. Arguably this government has done more (money printing) for the poor than any recent government. The big truth is these inequalities do exist, but the big lie was that this was what the conflict was about. It wasn't. (Get ready for the standard PAD pass-the-buck, blame anybody but the PAD propaganda line:) The conflict was really [deposed prime minister] Thaksin Shinawatra nd his supporters (Dear American investors who read Newsweek. There is no popular movement in Thailand that supports democracy and no disenfranchised citizens who want a say in how their country should be governed. There is nobody here worried about their vote being overturned by an illegal military coup. No one in Thailand cares about elections or 100 dead people killed by the Thai military in April and May. In Thailand we all support one party dictatorship, internet censorship and witch hunting. Please send your money and please send some jobs. Sincerely, Your Ever Faithful Servant Korn.) wanting to regain power, wanting to overturn the (highly questionable, highly suspect) corruption conviction against him, and wanting to get back his ill-gotten assets (which we recently appropriated through the ill-gotten means of our partisan kangaroo judiciary) . What we're really facing is a small group (over 50% of the population) of instigators trying to overthrow the (unelected) core pillars of Thailand.

Censorship Milestone: 113,000 sites blocked in Thailand + New Censor-in-chief and "Too much freedom" in Thailand Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 8:14pm "it will be difficult for new minister Juti Krairiksh to live up to the standard of the previous censor, but he insisted he was up to the task; Juti confirmed that Prime Minister Abhisit had personally instructed him that monitoring websites was one of the three most important jobs he would ever perform for the country." http://asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog/bureau-of-prevention-and-eradication-of-co mputer-crime Govt shuts 43,000 more websites, plans to block 3,000 more, total up to 113,000..

http://facthai.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/thai-internet-censorship-now-blocking-113000websites-manager/ Mr Juti added "The government has given too much freedom to its citizens." http://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news.php?id=255306150051 And lastly, old news from America: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ... Thank you for your support

Arbitrage and Carry Trades - How International Investors Exploit the Thai Economy for Fun and Profit Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 9:19pm Arbitrage US Federal Reserve Prime Interest Rate - 0.25% (1/4 of 1%) Bank of Japan Interest Rate - 0.10% (1/10 of 1%) Bank of Thailand Interest Rate - 1.25% If I am a hedge fund manager in New York, I will call up my friends at the New York Federal Reserve and put in an order to borrow $6,000,000 dollars with interest charge of $15,000 almost free. Then I call my broker in Bangkok, and buy $6,000,000 worth of Thai bonds. After 1 year I will collect $75,000 interest from the Bank of Thailand (paid by Thai taxpayers) - subtract my interest charge of $15,000 and I have made a nice profit of $60,000 off the backs of Thai taxpayers with 2 phone calls. ______________________________

Carry Trade In a carry trade, I will again borrow money from the Fed or the Bank of Japan and this time when I call the broker in Bangkok, I will buy stock shares in Thai companies. For example I will buy 200,000 shares of the SET index at 800 and fix my automatic sell price conservatively at SET 1000. I know that Mr. Abhisit is planning to print up a bunch of money to dump into the economy to guarantee his reelection (so this is a no-brainer). When all the mom and pop Thai investors think they are going to be rich by investing in the SET, they will buy shares and the SET price will Rise. When the SET passes 1000, I sell my 200,000 shares for a nice profit of 40,000,000 Baht. And later when the SET crashes and wipes out all the mom and pop Thai investors, I am laughing all the way to the bank with their money in my pocket. This is the anatomy of a wealth transfer Bubble.

Good investments (or boycotts) will be: Bangkok Bank Kasikorn Bank Siam Commercial Bank TPI Polene Thai Beverage - (be careful what you drink!) - makers of Beer Chang, Sang Som, Mekhong, Mungkorn Thong, Hong Thong, Crown 99 and Ruang Khao These are big Yellow Shirt companies, so I know that the PAD Government and Thai military will do everything to cover my back and guarantee my returns. Happy investing!

On Abhisit's WSJ article Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 3:21pm An inefficient, unemployed disorganized [country] faces us. Torn by internal strife and international hate. Fighting, starving, pillaging and lying. We are thus faced...with the spectacle of an extraordinary weakness on the part of the great capitalist class...The terror and personal timidity of the individuals of this class is now so great; their confidence in their place in society...so diminished...They allow themselves to be ruined and altogether undone by their own instruments; by governments of their own making. -

John Maynard Keynes "The Economic Consequences of the Peace"

_____________________

Pimp-daddy http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704271804575405152394878966.html See the great Prime Minister of Thailand- servant of the King and leader of the country instinctively bowing, scraping and begging the USA, Japan, China, and India for jobs...See him groveling and begging any and every foreigner to make jobs in Thailand - but doing nothing himself to create Thai jobs for Thai people. I think he hates Thais. I think he doesn't respect them and believes they are too stupid to generate their own businesses, their own capital and their own jobs. His behavior and mindset are totally disgusting and disrespectful to the real sovereigns of Thailand - the Thai people.

____________________ House Slave In his bones Abhisit wants to be a house slave for foreign masters. You can just see it in this article. He has no interest or even creative ability to produce capital domestically and no cajones to keep capital in Thailand. He wants to tax Thai land owners (probably all red shirts) but has no guts to tax any of the capital produced at Korean, Japanese, German, American, Italian, or Chinese factories operating in the eastern seaboard special economic zone. He is happy to watch all that homegrown Thaiproduced capital fly out of the country untaxed or under-taxed every single day. And he has proven himself to those international investors. He has shown that he is willing to remorselessly butcher his own suffering, exploited people in the street when they ask for elections or a better standard of living. And he further sells them out by refusing protectionist tariffs on the profits they produce with their own labor.

_____________________________ ABHISIT (The Thai Plantation Overseer): See master...if these low-wage peons get out of hand and ask for democracy or a better life we'll just shoot them for you...that will teach them a lesson they will never forget. I am a good boy, aren't I master? Can I have some jobs now before the peons hang me?

FOREIGN MASTER: Soooooeey! Squeal like a Pig, boy. ____________________________ And his appalling, condescending attitude that all adult Thais have to be well-behaved good little children and maintain "order" (to appease the foreign masters) before there will be any human rights or elections. The face of a man but the words and actions of an abuser. Abhisit is not a patriot. He doesn't even represent Thailand, Thai people or Thai interests. He is a confidence man and trained puppet fronting for ruthless international capital. He serves only the 20-30 families in Thailand that benefit from maintaining Thailand as a plantation for foreign exploitation. (and that includes: The Monarchy / The Military / and the so-called Thai Elite

____________________________ Mr. Inflationist His only idea to gain revenue for his government is to tax big land holders (again, probably all red shirts). This is supposed to pay for 2 new military divisions in Isaan and Chiang Mai, plus offer millions of baht in matching funds to Thais who save money!? No bonds will be offered (probably because he knows nobody will buy them). Sorry Mr.-Oxford-Educated-economist, the figures don't add up. Not even close. So What is the plan? "We are serious about redistributing wealth" 555 Hahaha - If he was serious, the Wall Street Journal would pillory him as the new corrupt anti-democratic Hugo Chavez-style lying populist who wants to be dictator for life. In reality, this is a trick statement..the plan will be to print money and throw it around while keeping a boot on people's throat. Then hope that inflation doesn't go crazy before the election (watch inflation! - not gov. numbers but store prices). He didn't say Redistribution to who - so that means via inflation redistribution away from people with cash and towards people with tangible property (landholders like the royalty!). "All these imitative virtues are only the virtues of a monkey...The monkey imitates man, whom he fears...he thinks what is done by his betters must be good." - Jean-Jaques Rousseau

Notice Abhisit plans to follow Thaksin's playbook of pandering to the Isaan masses with savings accounts and so forth - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I think the tax-on-land scheme has no way to raise enough capital to put into the hands of Red voters to change their mind. So the trick must be done through inflation.

The Current Numbers Scream "INFLATION!" Finance Minister Korn(ball) - creature of JP Morgan Chase - says he expects 5.5% to 7.5% Growth. The Current bank of Thailand interest rate is: 1.25% http://thailand-business-news.com/economics/16702-the-bank-of-thailand-bot-maintainsinterest-rate-at-1-25-per-cent/

That means that Korn and Abhisit know there will be 4.25% to 6.25% inflation guaranteed. Even more if they can find a way to make broke Americans and Japanese buy Thai goods. Make no mistake - they want this inflation because it will give people the temporary illusion of prosperity before they wake up in 2011 and find out that their 100 baht note only buys 90 baht or less worth of goods. Did your boss offer you a 10% pay raise this year to compensate? And how about plans for the "sustainability economy?" Korn says he expects GM, Ford and Mitsubishi to build factories in Thailand to make - MORE CARS. With oil production and supplies peaking and running out world-wide, he wants Thais to build more cars! Thanks guy. You are a genius. More like an idiot. Thailand's biggest trade partners are the USA and Japan. The USA is running purely on government stimulus. This is unsustainable and Thailand can't rely on it. And if the American economy and world economy somehow get going again, we will be right back to 2008 when oil prices were $200 per barrel and people were starving because food price inflation was through the roof. Japan has outrageous public debt in a deflating economy and keeps all the real capital for the Yakusa/LDP while the rest of the country stopped having babies long ago + they are vassals of the Americans. They run 0.025% interest rates that allows them to print valueless money and throw it around internationally (carry trade). Does that sound sustainable? Do Abby/Korn want Thailand to be a target of carry trades which helped to destroy the world economy in 2008? Maybe yes if it temporarily narcotizes common folks who don't have time to worry about these things. If Abby can just make them think that the economy is "looking up" before elections then maybe the trick will work. But there will be a price to pay when the bubble bursts - as it did in America in 1929, in 1987, in 2001 and 2008...as it did in Holland during the Tulip mania...as it did in John Law's France in the 1700s...and as it did in Germany in 1923. When serious inflation kicks in after elections, who cares as long as PAD stays in power? Who cares if Thai people can't afford food and fuel as long as PAD stays in power? Power is the name of the game and that's their plan. You should make your plans accordingly.

The Kentucky-Thailand Connection Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 11:38am Eastern Kentucky University Alum

Fun Parts of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 5:43am Article 19. * Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers. Article 9. * No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 5. * No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Since Thailand now chairs the UN Office of Human Rights, this might be a good time to reflect on the articles above. Suggestion for a new website to censor??? Why not try: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Reassessing 3 Critical Points of Debate with Yellow People 1. Who benefited most from the 'violent protest'? 2. Which came first Massacre or Arson? 3. Do 25 dangerous weapons make 20,000 protesters armed terrorists? It is important to get some things straight because 2 1/2 months later, many yellow people are becoming hazy with their stories and various rationalizations in trying to bend reality to fit their propaganda. Let's review a few critical points: ____________ (1) My biggest problem is finding believable answers to these questions: If former Prime Minister Thaksin was going to hire mercenary thugs to attack the Thai military and bring down the Thai government, why would he hire such a tiny group? - so small that he knew the attack would fail? - and thereby destroy the moral legitimacy of the rest of the Red Shirt protests? I think this is a crucial point. The reporter who interviewed red shirt leader Jakrapob Penkair last week used the issue of some Red Shirts being armed on May 19 as a major point of attack to question the legitimacy of all the Red Shirts. http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s2969629.htm Let's pause and think for a moment. Mr. Thaksin built a telecom company that amassed a fortune of over $1 billion dollars. He helped to organize a political party that won two national elections. He served as Prime Minister of Thailand for 6 years. The man is obviously no fool. Yet he is being accused of hiring a small bunch of violent people that would derail his legitimate protests against a military backed coup that overthrew his popularly elected government. And - these violent mercenaries were armed so pathetically that they could never hope to overthrow any government (except maybe Grenada). Something smells awfully fishy. Considering further, we know that the US military and CIA have been in bed with the Thai monarchy and military and neck-deep in Thai politics for over 60 years. We also know that the US military used pre-fabricated lies to start: (1) The Vietnam War - Gulf of Tonkin (2) The First Gulf War - Naira (daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador) and the Iraqi Soldier/Incubator Lie (3) The Second Gulf War - Lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction Is it a far stretch to think that the "Violent Red Shirts" were really agent provocateurs working on behalf of the Yellow Shirt government? After all, who benefited from their violent actions? It

was certainly not the Red Shirts - who were killed by the dozens and wounded in the thousands. And this provided an excuse for all Red Shirts to be branded as dangerous terrorists because of the actions of this small group of "Violent Red Shirts". The beneficiary was the minority, unelected, military-backed monarchist Yellow Shirt government who then summarily dismissed the rule of law, unleashed a campaign of police state terror, witch hunting, intimidation, scapegoating, censorship, jailing without charge - or with charges of "terrorism", etc… It all seems too convenient when a government that can't win elections suddenly receives the gift of violent protests. This is certainly an important point to consider.

________________________________ (2) Another tactic used by Yellow Shirt debaters is to broadly characterize Red Shirt supporters as dangerous, chaos-loving thugs who like to set buildings on fire. They will use the argument that Thai soldiers had to discipline the Red Shirts (by killing them) for burning down buildings.

But, as you can see, this is putting the cart before the horse. If you go back to look at the timeline of events as they unfolded on May 19, 2010 http://thethaireport.com/thethaireport/May_2010_Protest_Archive.html you will see - at 6:30 in the morning - the Thai soldiers opened fire with live bullets which started the killing of 90 people and wounding of 2000. THEN in the afternoon, the shopping mall and stock exchange were set on fire and various government buildings around Thailand were burned to the ground.

The Yellow Shirt government will not provide any evidence to prove otherwise. They claim this is in the interest of national security! But it is probably only in the interest of covering up responsibility and accountability for the massacre of their own people. Follow the timeline: 06:25am - Fireworks shot, returned with gunfire... http://twitter.com/photo_journ/status/14256902073 07:05am - Al Jazeera reports: Military has permission to enter protest camp... http://twitter.com/Saksith/status/14258987893 07:35am - Red stage: Slow music, gun fire in the background... http://twitter.com/terryfrd/status/14260592115

09:30 - ThaiCom seized, 2 more protesters shot... http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=118266671544174&id=123580604318 842 09:50 - 18 injured at police hospital, mostly leg wounds... http://twitter.com/georgebkk/status/14268408738 10:15 - Woman reported shot and killed... http://twitter.com/Saksith/status/14269756295 11:40 - 3 foreign journalists shot... http://twitter.com/babyfishie/status/14274171232 12:25 - Khon Kaen (upcountry outside Bangkok) red shirts take over city hall... http://twitter.com/TAN_Network/status/14276451237 13:00 - Udon Thani (upcountry outside Bangkok) city hall burns... http://twitter.com/freakingcat/status/14277932279 14:45 - Ubon Ratchathani (upcountry outside Bangkok) provincial hall on fire, gunshots... http://twitter.com/TAN_Network/status/14281285665 15:15 - Add Mukdahan to list of burning provincial halls... 15:20 - SET stock exchange burning... 15:30 - Ch3 building burns... 15:55 - Siam movie theater collapses... 16:15 - Picture: Bangkok burning… So I cannot accept the false idea that the Red Shirts are uncontrollable arsonists. The Thai soldiers initiated a massacre, and then the buildings burned - NOT the other way around. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(3) The arsenal presented by the Yellow Shirt government - as reported in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/22/AR2010052203166.html - is pathetically small. I am supposed to run away screaming from this?: 13 guns, 12 grenades, a crossbow, a bucket of slingshots and a casino card!!? Gimme a break. 8 Chinese AKs, 5 'rusty' American rifles, 12 grenades...Jesu Cristo...A grand total of 25 dangerous weapons. Did anybody tell these guys that arsenals like this can be found in one random block of any American city? Heck, you could fit all those weapons in the trunk of one car! Any self-respecting police force in the world could take care of that arsenal without killing 90 people and sending 2000 to the hospital. There were 20,000 protesters in Bangkok and 25 dangerous weapons. I am supposed to believe that 13 guns and 12 grenades almost brought down the government of Thailand? Give me a break. Some body had better ask some body. _______________ I hope this gives you some insight into the nature of what happened and is happening in Thailand now. These are important points to remember. Thank you for your support

The Ballad of the Orchard Keeper and the 88 Ghosts (or a dark exorcism) - A Poem Friday, June 4, 2010 at 4:00pm

red apples bad yellow apples delicious and all the dead apples are terrorists You made me shoot. We both know that and by my hands. deliverance the path to clean your aggression with perfection is being blind, deaf and mute. CHORUS: but we Smell. the 88. To the gods of the temple of shopping shall you be sacrificed (...Applause...Curtains...)

Partial list of Logical Fallacies Used in Thai Yellow Shirt Propaganda Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 2:03am These are various arguments put forth by Yellow-minded folks I encountered in Thailand. Ad Hominem Tu Quoque This fallacy is committed when it is concluded that a person’s claim is false because 1) it is inconsistent with something else a person has said or 2) what a person says is inconsistent with her actions. This type of “argument” has the following form: 1. Person A makes claim X. 2. Person B asserts that A’s actions or past claims are inconsistent with the truth of claim X. 3. Therefore X is false. Example: A: All I want is a new election and my vote to count. B: Last time you voted for Thaksin who is a terrorist and bad guy. Therefore you should have no election and no vote ________ Poisoning the Well This sort of “reasoning” involves trying to discredit what a person might later claim by presenting unfavorable information (be it true or false) about the person. This “argument” has the following form: 1. Unfavorable information (be it true or false) about person A is presented. 2. Therefore any claims person A makes will be false.

Example:A: Somebody shot live bullets from the red camp. Therefore all claims by every red protester, their opinions, freedoms and very life are forfeit in perpetuity.

HINT: This is the central argument at the crux of the claimed legitimacy of the Abhisit government and its continued program. Continue to use it at your discretion. ____________________________ Appeal to Belief Appeal to Belief is a fallacy that has this general pattern: 1. Most people believe that a claim, X, is true. 2. Therefore X is true.

Example: Everybody in Bangkok knows Thaksin is a rat. Therefore Thaksin is a rat. ____________________________ Appeal to Consequences of a Belief

X is true because accepting that X is true has positive consequences (for me) .

EXAMPLE: We don’t need quick elections (because I’ll lose) __________________________ Appeal to Fear The Appeal to Fear is a fallacy with the following pattern: 1. Y is presented (a claim that is intended to produce fear). 2. Therefore claim X is true (a claim that is generally, but need not be, related to Y in some manner).

Example: If there is an election, or the emergency decree is lifted then Thailand will descend into chaos and might cease to exist. _______________________

Appeal to Novelty Appeal to Novelty is a fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that something is better or correct simply because it is new. This sort of “reasoning” has the following form: 1. X is new. 2. Therefore X is correct or better.

EXAMPLE: Abhisit is not Thaksin. Therefore Abihisit is preferable. _____________________________ Appeal to Popularity The Appeal to Popularity has the following form: 1. Most people approve of X (have favorable emotions towards X). 2. Therefore X is true.

EXAMPLE: Everybody in Bangkok approves of the killing of protesters and supports the actions of Abhisit’s government and knows it is good for Thailand. Therefore it is good for Thailand. ________________________ Appeal to Ridicule The Appeal to Ridicule is a fallacy in which ridicule or mockery is substituted for evidence in an “argument.” This line of “reasoning” has the following form: 1. X, which is some form of ridicule is presented (typically directed at the claim). 2. Therefore claim C is false.

EXAMPLE: Red thugs and Red terrorists destroyed the peace and quiet. Therefore their demands are illegitimate. _____________________

Appeal to Spite The Appeal to Spite Fallacy is a fallacy in which spite is substituted for evidence when an “argument” is made against a claim. This line of “reasoning” has the following form: 1. Claim X is presented with the intent of generating spite. 2. Therefore claim C is false (or true) EXAMPLE: A: I think I’ll vote Red. B. Remember, Reds are non-human terrorists who threaten the very existence of Thailand. A: OK - maybe I will reconsider ______________________________ Appeal to Tradition Appeal to Tradition is a fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that something is better or correct simply because it is older, traditional, or “always has been done.” This sort of “reasoning” has the following form: 1. X is old or traditional 2. Therefore X is correct or better. EXAMPLE: Institution X (for example the monarchy / military axis) in its current incarnation has a long history in this country. Therefore Institution X and its current incarnation are correct. _______________________ Burden of Proof Burden of Proof is a fallacy in which the burden of proof is placed on the wrong side. Another version occurs when a lack of evidence for side A is taken to be evidence for side B in cases in which the burden of proof actually rests on side B. A common name for this is an Appeal to Ignorance. This sort of reasoning typically has the following form: 1. Claim X is presented by side A and the burden of proof actually rests on side B. 2. Side B claims that X is false because there is no proof for X.

EXAMPLE: Red shirts are responsible for their own deaths despite the fact that they were all several meters away from the finger that pulled the trigger. When lethal force is used which results in death and injury, the burden of proof (usually extremely high) lies with the shooter, not the shot. Once a Burden of Proof fallacy has been invoked , Poisoning the Well (see above) is a necessary tactic of Propaganda to reinforce the mistake. ___________________ Circumstantial Ad Hominem A Circumstantial ad Hominem is a fallacy in which one attempts to attack a claim by asserting that the person making the claim is making it simply out of self interest. In some cases, this fallacy involves substituting an attack on a person’s circumstances (such as the person’s religion, political affiliation, ethnic background, etc.). The fallacy has the following forms: 1. Person A makes claim X. 2. Person B asserts that A makes claim X because it is in A’s interest to claim X. 3. Therefore claim X is false. EXAMPLE: A: The Red Shirts have a more well reasoned program, not riddled with logical fallacies B: All of you reds took money from Thaksin, therefore your claim is bunk. __________________________ Composition The first type of fallacy of Composition arises when a person reasons from the characteristics of individual members of a class or group to a conclusion regarding the characteristics of the entire class or group (taken as a whole). More formally, the “reasoning” would look something like this. 1. Individual F things have characteristics A, B, C, etc. 2. Therefore, the (whole) class of F things has characteristics A, B, C, etc. EXAMPLE: A: There were one or more shooters in the red shirt camp. Therefore ALL the red protesters are violent thuggish terrorists, totally illegitimate untrustworthy and bad for Thailand.

_______________________________ Description of Division The fallacy of Division is committed when a person infers that what is true of a whole must also be true of its constituents and justification for that inference is not provided. There are two main variants of the general fallacy of Division: The first type of fallacy of Division is committed when 1) a person reasons that what is true of the whole must also be true of the parts and 2) the person fails to justify that inference with the required degree of evidence. More formally, the “reasoning” follows this sort of pattern: 1. The whole, X, has properties A, B, C, etc. 2. Therefore the parts of X have properties A, B, C, etc. EXAMPLE: A: The Red Shirt movement is composed of terrorists that are a threat to Thailand. Therefore the 3 year old kid, teenage girl, guy in a wheelchair and 80 year old grandma who attended the protest are terrorists as well. ___________________________ Description of False Dilemma A False Dilemma is a fallacy in which a person uses the following pattern of “reasoning”: 1. Either claim X is true or claim Y is true (when X and Y could both be false). 2. Claim Y is false. 3. Therefore claim X is true. A: You don’t support the Yellows, so you are a Red. __________________________ Etc…..Get the drift? My advice is that you pray that this stuff never reaches an international court. Any political propaganda which can’t build its case based on reason, will continue to have to defend itself from claims against its legitimacy.

Imagine the scene: Lawyer at the Hague questioning “Thai person X ” in the dock……. Thai Person X : “But those bad guys made me shoot!!!! They killed themselves.” Laughter……fade to black

Thailand Newspeak Dictionary 2010 edition Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 3:05am

Because a lot of folks around the world have little idea what is going on in Thailand, let me offer some translations of popular Thai newspeak. CRES = (center for resolution of the emergency situation) = The Ministry of Love / The Thought Police Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra = Emmanuel Goldstein “Reconciliation” = the ability to practice Doublethink “The Reconciliation Plan” = The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism The Nation/thaivisa.com/Bangkok Post/Thai TV/TOT, etc, et al = The Ministry of Truth The place where Red Shirt leaders are being jailed as ‘terrorists’ = Room 101 New loyalty oaths / new purity tests / compulsory prostration before images / witchhunts / claims of soldiers killing civilians as ‘normal’ and perfectly justified = “2+2 = 5” or “3 fingers, Winston” Our Yellow Shirt Overlords or The face of Neoliberal Capitalism in Thailand = Oceania Majority of Thai people and especially Isaan people = East-asia

Nullification of the results of popular elections using military coups and partisan judicial activism = “Oceania is at war with with East-asia. Oceania has always been at war with East-asia.” “The Emergency Situation” = New term for “The war against East-asia” The King and his many images = Big Brother Documentation: http://www.george-orwell.org/1984 Thank your for your support.

_______________

Thailand's International Legal Position and Cambodia's advantages over Thailand Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 3:07pm In Cambodia, I can say that the Prime Minister is a big stinky Dog. Here, let me type it out clearly so it is plain as the nose on your face:

Hun Sen is a cur, a scoundrel, and I'd never lend him money. P.S. Oh yeah and he's a big stinky dog too, so come and get me you creepy little pukes. _____________________________ See, that's not so bad is it? If Hun Sen puts me in jail and/or tortures me over this, I can file papers at the International Criminal Court of Justice in the Hague. I can charge him with violations of my rights to free speech and have INTERPOL haul him off to Holland. And the incredible thing is that Mr. Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, has to go - because the ICCJ applies to him just as much any other peon in Cambodia. All articles of the International Declaration of Human Rights are currently valid in Cambodia. Furthermore, Cambodia has signed and ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Cambodia has agreed to play by international rules. Cambodia may be one of the poorest countries on earth, but at least they have this much integrity. Not so in today's Thailand. Sorry Kids. Thailand has not agreed to play by international rules, and International Law does not apply within the borders of Thailand. Lets cross the border into Thai country and replace "Hun Sen" with the name of any high level Yellow Shirt monarchist/militarist/royalist or member of the current unelected government. It will instantly get you jail as a 'terrorist' for 7-14 years for starters, and if you are a Thai citizen, you'll probably be tortured and murdered in prison. Period. And there is not one darn thing you can do about it except rot in jail. (And just so you know, by writing this paragraph, I will never again be able to go to Thailand.)

Thailand has never ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Furthermore, last April, Abhisit's yellow shirt government declared a "State of Emergency" and unilaterally and embarrassingly withdrew from the most important parts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus, on that day, human rights in Thailand became null and void. Abhisit's yellow shirt

government is a law unto itself with no international responsibilities or accountability, whatsoever. The internet is now heavily censored and monitored, gatherings of 5 or more are prevented, movement by Thai citizens is restricted, and Thais and foreigners have been thrown in jail - on charges of Terrorism - for exercising their basic human rights. I was in Thailand from day 1 of the "State of Emergency". After 100+ people got killed, and thousands injured (by the Thai yellow shirt government/military) nothing further happened. All the protesters went home. No more yelling and screaming, no more violence, no craziness anywhere in Thailand for 7 full weeks. But, despite 7 1/2 weeks of peace and quiet, the "Emergency Situation" was renewed and extended on July 6 for another 3 full months. This allows Abhisit to "govern" without oversight or accountability of any kind until October 7, when the so-called State of Emergency will presumably be renewed in perpetuity forever. As long as the "Emergency" remains in place, elections and basic human rights will be conveniently forgotten in Thailand.

When I was in Thailand I always heard people say - why doesn't Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin come back and face charges against him? Why doesn't Giles Ji come back and face charges? These are questions spoken by morons or sycophants. I can tell you right now -> They didn't come because they are not idiots. They, like most sane people, don't wish to subject themselves to the corrupt authority of an International Kangaroo Legal System (IKLS). So come on down to Thailand and spend your money, but while you are there just know what kinds of legal rights and recourse you have - basically none. And that's why I left. Thank you for your support.

International Criminal Court. Members in Green. Orange denotes states where membership treaty is signed but not yet ratified.

Response to Yellow-minded hysteria that got me banned from Thaivisa.com Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 12:14am Regime Apologist Tactic Seminar If the critic or opponent is foreign: 1. First attack the fact that they are not Thai - despite so many of the current Thai elite being born and educated abroad. - despite the fact that the same elite fully and consciously imported western culture - like central banking, floating unbacked fiat currency, western capitalism, imperialism, etc... - they had no problem with 40,000 US troops occupying the country in the 1960s, have no problem with scads of tourists flooding in each year, as long as they bring capital - McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Starbucks everywhere, western fashion, english loan words skunking up Pasat Thai...yada yada...Foreign culture is fine as long as the regime benefits. But let one critic pop up and immediately they must castigated for being "foreign". 5555 2. Throw mud...if this fails go back to step 1, under no circumstances should you engage their arguments if the critic is Thai 1. jail with or without charges, harass, intimidate or hire someone to send them a message they'll never forget ________________________ RE The idea that Thaksin is a tyrant "Tyrants are as tyrants do. He fits the description on many levels. Just glad he doesn't have power here. " Better to have your own t-boys that fit your mindset more comfortably

________________________ Thaksin=Goebbels 555. Appeal to Nazi Germany - without citation or reference, incorrectly assuming that the argument is self-evident is called "Reductio ad Hitlerum" and is an ad hominem or ad misericordiam argument. It is an informal fallacy and also a fallacy of irrelevance ________________________ RE Assuming that the majority of Thais are yellow-shirts: "why do you forget about getting a view from the majority in Thailand." If you are so sure that everyone agrees with them yellows, why not have an election tomorrow and find out 100% for sure what the majority believes instead of attributing ideas that have no basis in fact? _________________________ RE Characterizing Thaksin/Red Shirts: "If it means foreign individuals or powers are funding an oprganization that burnt, intimidated, bombed and killed with scant regard for the human rights of ordinary people that would be quite interesting to say the least."

This is Psychological projection - I guess it is OK and hunky dorry with y'all as long as it is an elite sanctioned, domestic Thailand organization that "burnt, intimidated, bombed and killed with scant regard for the human rights of ordinary people". _____________________ "devious methods that Thaksin and his allies are instigating" ---- attribution error, ad hominem attack, blanket condemnation

"in order to try yet again to turn Thailand into their own personal vassal state their own thiefdom" Psychological projection-- Hahah - that honor belongs to one group and one group only -- any Guesses???

Good day gentlemen. The floor is now open for further ad hominem and other logically fallacious attacks.

The End of Eyewitness History Of Thailand 2010-2017

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