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Egypt vs. Thailand: A Matter of Perspective

The current unrest in Egypt is making a lot of people nervous, and rightfully so. The one phrase that I keep coming back to is from Alan Moore’s badass comic book V for Vendetta: People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people. It’s a simple statement, but it carries a lot of weight. But as I took in what’s happening in Egypt and compared it with my experiences with Thailand’s recent unrest over the past year, I got to thinking about how context and relativity plays a role in examining just how bad one actually has it, or how serious a situation really is.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:25+00:00Current Events, Politics|0 Comments

What the World Writes about Thailand

Google's a pretty neat tool, and it's fascinating to see how it's evolved over the past ten years. When I first came to Thailand in 2001, I did all my searches using either Lycos, HotBot, or Excite, but now I - indeed, most of the world - simply uses Google. It's pretty amazing how far their shadow stretches, touching pretty much every corner of the internet, no matter how insignificant. For non-insansely smart computer geeks, it's a bit hard to wrap your mind around exactly how access to all this seemingly minor information can congeal into a useful whole, but a new Google tool called Ngram consolidates an incredible amount of information - 200 years' worth, to be precise - and lets you search. Just for fun, I did some popular searches for Thai terms.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:26+00:00Current Events, Language, Print Media, Technology, Thailand|0 Comments

The Abortion Scandal

I usually stay away from 'serious' topics like a kid from a broccoli salad, but this issue is a pretty big one, and I wanted to get a few thoughts out. You may have heard recently about the current abortion scandal going on in Thailand; basically, someone discovered over 2,000 aborted fetuses at a Bangkok temple, a pretty grisly find. This would be pretty awful in any country, but it’s especially significant in Thailand for several reasons, most notably the fact that abortion is: a) illegal in Thailand and b) seen as a grave sin in Buddhist countries. As you may expect, it’s tearing up the headlines and causing a huge stir. However, while regrettable in every sense of the word, the fallout – one would hope – may prompt some much-needed introspection in Thai culture. What’s done is done, but hopefully this will cause a few people in positions of influence to examine the cause of the problem instead of simply start to throw blame around.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:26+00:00Bangkok, Current Events|0 Comments

A Morning with the Tourism Authority at Ratchprasong

The Thai government has been working overtime in the wake of all the red shirt mayhem that went down a few months ago to reassure everyone that all is well and things are back to normal. Of course, looking at the big picture and the deep social scarring left from the protests it might be a bit of a misnomer to say things are 'back to normal', but on the surface (where most tourists reside), things look pretty regular. However, businesses are still hurting, so to help drum up interest in the Ratchprasong area (where most of the fires and shootings took place), the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) organized a special press tour of the affected area, which I was lucky enough to be invited to.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:29+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

On Bangkok’s Curfew… and Snacks

As you likely know, Bangkok has, for the past several nights, been under curfew. This isn't something I've experienced since I was about 15 years old, so to say it was a bit odd is an understatement; knowing that you'll likely be arrested by the army if you're outside after 9pm is the adult version of a kid running home at sunset to avoid the monsters that come out after dark. Seeing the city asleep has been very strange. Normally buzzing with the sound of cars, motorbikes, music, food and general city sounds, the city is quiet and lifeless. Standing on your balcony looking out out across the blinking lights, I felt a bit like Will Smith in I Am Legend, but without all the abs.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:31+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

The Role of Twitter in the Bangkok Protests

Well, despite my vow to avoid writing about politics, here's another post about the situation in Bangkok. As the redshirts tear up the city, again, and the army tries to beat them into submission, again, it's like some sick version of Batman vs The Joker - neither side wins, everyone loses, wash, rinse repeat. I don't mean to crack wise - the situation is tense, deadly and will have long-term repercussions for the entire country. Being stuck amid events like these is not something that us North Americans are used to, and I've written before about how it changes your perceptions of reality. It also really opens your eyes into the machinery behind situations like this, most notably the machinery of how information is distributed and consumed. In this regard, it's been a salient - although deadly - crash course in the power of Twitter.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:32+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics, Technology, Thailand, Web Media|0 Comments

A Tragedy in Bangkok, and the Opportunities it Brings

As I mentioned in my previous post about the red shirts, I usually avoid writing about politics for two reasons: 1) the situations often evolve too quickly for my sporadic man-child comments to be of any use, and 2), I'll be the first to admit it - I'm not so smrt in the politics department. However, I am affected by what's going on, and it has serious implications for the future of Thailand. So, instead of adding to the flood of theories of what happened and opinions on what will happen next, I thought I'd just put out a few thoughts on how a regular dude feels all caught up in what's going on.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:33+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, History, Politics|0 Comments

Some Thoughts on the Red Shirts

There are a few things I generally try to avoid writing about on my blog, and politics is one of them. Part of it is due to the fact that I'm too busy to write regularly about such topical and quickly-evolving subjects, but mostly it's because there are other bloggers out there who speak much more eloquently on the whole shebang than I ever could. However, as I do often have an opinion or two, I thought I'd put up some pictures and write a short bit about the ongoing red shirt protest in Bangkok and how I feel about the whole mess.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:33+00:00Bangkok, Culture, Current Events, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

Thailand’s Love/Hate Relationship with Media Violence (and Sex!)

janet It's a bit difficult for me to speak credibly about the topic of how sex and violence affects youth, because my experience is often in contrast to my beliefs. Personally, I think that a young kid seeing all kinds of brutal violence and graphic sex is bad; however, in my oft-hooliganistic youth, I saw more of both than any normal kid should and managed to turn out (mostly) okay. It's one of those issues where lines blur in different places for different people. But nowhere is this issue blurred more than in Thailand, where several issues come together in a big ol' pile of censorship, hypocrisy and unintentional comedy.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:49+00:00Current Events, Print Media, Thailand|0 Comments

Are the Bangkok Protests Really as Bad as They Say?

I generally try and stay away from writing about Thailand's constantly shifting, often ridiculous and usually baffling politics. This is due to the fact that I'm admittedly kind of dense when it comes to politics; I see them as I see art - I know what I like and don't like, but as for the theories on origin or dissection of ideology, I really have no idea. I find that, generally speaking, politicians can't be trusted and money talks, and that's all you need to know. The ongoing protests in Bangkok are definitely double-plus un-good and have been covered quite well, but I've seen some things in the news that kind of shocked me which I wanted to extrapolate on.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:53+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics|0 Comments