My dearest fantasy novelist, Mr Somtow Sucharitkul has once again done it, hes written a response to Amsterdam’s White Letter. Dont get me wrong i think Amsterdam makes a career out of representing scum but I’d just like to point something out. In his long winded posts he comments that Amsterdam has taken history and twisted it to serve a purpose in his white hoopla thing. I dont disagree. But Mr Somtow, if you’re going to make that argument perhaps you should listen to your own advice….two things to point out.

Now, in real life, Schickelgruber didn’t emigrate to America, but did change his surname to Hitler.  The rest you know.

Actually, his father changed the name to Hitler. Not Adolf. Please dont insult history.
Anyways more importantly, and heres the really big thing, Mr Somtow goes back to his tirade on Western media with this gem.

Recently, when Christiane Amanpour was badgering Mr. Abhisit on Hard Talk, she tried to ambush him with the challenging statement “You weren’t elected.”  Our prime minister decided to respond by giving an elaborate explanation of Thailand’s parliamentary process.  This was not the ideal way of dealing with her.  Although everything that the prime minister said was true, Ms. Amanpour did not make the statement in order to elicit the truth.  It was to provoke drama, and the proper response should have been something like, “What a stupid statement: in a parliamentary democracy, the prime minister is never directly chosen by the electorate.  Didn’t you learn that in school?  And you call yourself British!”  Ms. Amanpour uttered a half-truth as though it were a whole one; she should have been called on it.  To start explaining, to start justifying, is already to concede the validity of the half-truth.  You’re letting the other side choose the terms of discourse.  You’re agreeing to fight on their turf.

Alright! Lets do a little fact checking. Christiane Amanpour was the chief international correspondent of CNN. Recently shes moved over to host her own show on ABC.
Link can be found here  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62I02R20100319

Now lets look at Hard Talk. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/default.stm Oh that program thats on the BBC? Right… So according to Mr Somtow, the most recognizable face on CNN ‘badgered’ Mr Abhisit on BBC, an impossible notion at least in this universe.
Look I am all for criticizing Robert Amsterdam. But if the point you want to make is that he distorts facts, the least you can do is get your own facts correct. This ridiculous agenda against western media is now bordering on the absurd, hell through his own sheer oversight he’s managed to attack three separate news organizations with false facts and sheer stupidity. He didn’t shoot shyster, he shot himself in the foot.

The blog post from Somtow can be found here. http://www.somtow.org/2010/07/dont-shoot-shyster.html

Don’t try deleting it either, ive screen capped the original post.

Lets be as brief and concise as possible this is the truth of Thai history. Factual. Not based on all those lies told by the Indians, the Malays, the Khmers, Europeans, even falsified Thai architecture and archeological sites put there by Thaksin. This is the truth.

Back a long time ago, even before the days of vinyl records, a marvelous place and people existed called Suvarnabhumi and Tais. It was called the golden kingdom. It was not in Sumatra and Lower Burma but near present day Sukhothai. In this land the wine rice-wine flowed like water and every man had 194 virgins to pleasure him at a moment’s whim. It was a land where white elephants ran their lords bidding and everyone was happy, even the slaves.

However the forces of Mordor Burma and Cambodia saw the Tais golden massage wonderland and looked at it with green eyes of envy. They used agents to infiltrate and corrupt paradise.

After years of corruption Suvarnabhumi destroyed itself internally and dissapeared without a trace.

The descendants of the original Tais would go on to find the Sukhothai kingdom which ruled with peace and stability. The reports of constant infighting and coups and counter coups by princes and royals is merely a made up lie by the Western Powers who would instill their ideas into our blood stream. Others Tais would go on to find other great empires like the Roman, Mughal, Ottoman etc. Even the Mongol Leader Genghis Khan was of Tai origin. In fact Aryans are descendants of Suvarnabhumi.

It was here in Sukhothai that BodhijasvatirashdaloolawtfpwnedRajayanamakara was achieved. Through the great Kings of Sukhothai the finest in world literature was written, The Bhagavad Gita, The Mahabarata, The Bible, The Torah, all the goosebump series and many more. In addition the most important epic the Ramayana was written here telling the story of an island (Jungceylon) or Phuket not (Ceylon) or Sri Lanka.

Many important princes of Sukhothai would go on to do great things including various incarnations of Vishnu and Ganesh who would defend the empire against the encroachment of western barbarians. Many of the important battles that were won in history emulated the success of these campaigns. In fact the DDAY landings in Normandy was based on the invasion of Yavin IV Sumatra.

However over time various impure bloodlines sullied Sukhothai and it too fell from grace.

The Tais eventually resettled this time in Ayuthaya. Others who went other directions once again influenced the course of history including Keynes, Newton and Malthus. Corpernicus was also reported to be half tai on his mother’s side.

In Ayuthaya peace was the status quo. All reports of mass beheadings and slaverys are true, but the beheded were Khmer and the slaves were happy. Fact.  While other countries struggled internally the kingdoms of ayuthaya only had to deal with renegade princes and succession crisis. Other countries were COLONIZED!

In the end though the corruption of christianity and western ideas led to the downfall of Ayuthaya in 1767.

TAI HISTORY FUN FACTS!

• Tais descendent from a race once known as ‘xenu’
  
• Buddha had much Tai blood
  
• The pyramids had many problems resulting in the bent pyramid and steppe pyramid. Only with the help of Tai architects did it get built. In fact look at the other 6 wonders all gone. Tai influence? Still there.
  
• God was probably Tai if he existed.
  
• Jesus Christ was not born in Palestine this is a lie, he was born near present day Udon Thani, his mother’s name was not Mary but Malee.
  
• Ganesh was originally an elephant of Suvarnabhumi before he attained Godlike powers.
  

Our friends on the far right have recently come out to say a few interesting and controversial things. Among them are these thoughts:

Sondhi also opines that he does not believe in the majoritarian system because Parliament is a place of evil. He will fight against the one-man-one-vote system because he wants a ‘Dharma-ocracy’ instead. If Mr Abhisit cannot achieve it, there should be a military coup. He adds that no one is bloodthirsty; people are just doing their duties.

and this from Mr Thanong

Don’t be misled by Freedom, Human rights, Democracy, globalisation and other crazy fashionable ideas. They are poisonous and hollow.

more from Mr Thanong

Let’s make it clear: Thailand is now suffering from rampant and irresponsible free speech. We don’t have enough right speech.

yet even more from Mr Thanong

I would like Abhisit government to start chart out phor phiang policy in all respects. This would shield us from impending global turmoil.

and more from Mr Thanong

If you follow me, you’ll understand the secret of Suvarnabhumi. But you have to solve the riddle of the “self” first.

and yet even more

Many of us fall under the spell of a beautiful Independence Day phrase: All men are created equal. We are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you’re a Buddhist like me, you would not get too excited with these American phrases.Men are not born equal because each of us has different baramee depending on our accumulated deeds or karma. I have trouble with “equal rights”.

almost there

Most developed economies are already in the water after decades of overconsumption or not phor phiang.

and finally

I hate the word government. Let communities grow and government from their own community councils (sapha chumchon)

Well it seems that on one extreme we have republicanism and social welfare state as the objective, on the other extreme we have an egalitarian, agrarian, phor phiang society with no votes, and emphasis on the rural communities being self sufficient.

Bare with me now for something a little bit more academic. This is from a look into the formation of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Here is the intellectual backdrop in the movement, Khieu Samphan’s thesis which provided the inspiration for the Khmer Rouge.

In this heretofore exploitation-exploited schema, where underdevelopment grows from the yoke of capitalism and international integration, a less-developed country can expect to develop only if it severs itself from the World-System (that is, the world itself). For Khieu Samphan, autarkic development was renamed “conscious, autonomous development” to make it appear more palatable. Later, conscious, autonomous development was re-christened “self-reliance.”

Does that sound at all familiar? Or how about this, which a journalist wrote in the early days of the ‘revolution;

Can the regime recapture the grandeur of Angkor [in which the great temples were built in the 12th century] without duplicating the slavery (and by implication, the elite ) that made Angkor what it was? Is the price for liberation, in human terms, too high? Surely, as a friend of mine has written, we Americans with our squalid record in Cambodia should be “cautiously optimistic” about the new regime, “or else shut up.” At the same time, I might feel less cautions and more optimistic if I were able to hear the voices of people I knew in the Cambodian countryside fourteen years ago, telling me about the revolution in their words.

Angkor, Sukhothai, Suvarnabhumi, oh how we glorify the past. Oh here is a little tidbit on how (French) journalists were distorting the rumours coming out of Cambodia. How it was all too sensational.

These public pleas for support and the public concern raised by sensational, but false, documents finally provoked the Paris Mission of Democratic Kampuchea [Ed: Khmer Rouge Government] to protest that some journalists were degrading their profession and that the French held a major share of the responsibility for allowing these activities to continue.

or how about those pesky American Journos.

The United States press, not to be outdone, produced dramatic news reports and editorials based on refugee and unnamed intelligence sources. In retrospect, these reports were partly inaccurate and are still largely unverified. The flap illustrates the powerful and potentially dangerous force that is generated when the political machinations of a few capture the attention of a concerned and uninformed public.

and this is from a party broadcast after the ‘liberation’ of Phnom Phenh

Upon entering Phnom Penh and other cities, the brother and sister combatants of the revolutionary army . . . sons and daughters of our workers and peasants . . . were taken aback by the overwhelming unspeakable sight of long-haired men and youngsters wearing bizarre clothes making themselves undistinguishable [sic] from the fair sex. . . . Our traditional mentality, mores, traditions, literature, and arts and culture and tradition were totally destroyed by U.S. imperialism and its stooges. Social entertaining, the tempo and rhythm of music and so forth were all based on U.S. imperialistic patterns. Our people’s traditionally clean, sound characteristics and essence were completely absent and abandoned, replaced by imperialistic, pornographic, shameless, perverted, and fanatic traits.

You might think there is no relationship but I think its absolutely chilling. Then again you don’t have to believe me about what certain people believe, just watch ASTV for yourself. Or follow @thanongk on twitter. I leave you with these last few statistics on the cost of the Khmer Rouge’s ‘return to year zero.’

• 1.5 million people killed. That is 1,500,000 people killed.
• 200,000 thousand orphaned.
• 180,000 internally displaced.
• 4 million landmines

First some positive in the rule leading up and including Narai:

I do not believe there is a country in the world where there are more religioins and where their practice is more freely permitted than in Siam. The Gentiles, Christians, Mahometans, who are all divided into different sects, have complete liberty to follow whichever cult they think best…[The Siamese] say that heaven is like a great palace to which several paths lead, some shorter, some more frequented, some more difficult, but that all in the end arrive at the place of bliss which men seek. – Jacques de Bourges 1666.

From Relations du voyage de Monseigneur l’Eveque de Beryte

But it was hardly the Utopia some make it out to be. The following describes the events that followed after the cremation of the King’s elephant.

…two men, former servants or attendants of the elephant, presented themselves before the king. They told him since the elephant, their master was dead, they wished to go and serve him in the after life. The King thanked them, drew his sword, cut them in two, and had them cremated. – Jacques de Coutre 1640.

From Vida de Iaqves de Covttre, Natural de la Civdad de Brugas.

It was also a land that had serf labourers (in addition to slaves.)

One only sees women working, the men being more often employed in the King’s Service which they perform like slaves. The same honours were afforded me as were those given to the King… Everyone was in barges, prostrate, Their hands joined together in front of their forehead.

**

The King of siam has a great number of Malays in his states…The Penguans (Mons) are almost as numerous as the Siamese. The laos are very numerous especially in the north…The Cochin Chinese number about 100 families, mostly CHristians. Among the Tonkinese are seven or eight Christian families (Read Vietnamese).

The Malays are quite numerous, but most are slaves and consequently not bodyguards…In this great kingdom are many Peguans who were taken as prisoners of war…. – Chevalier de Chaumond  1686.

From Relation de L’ambassade de Mr Le Chevalier de Chaumont a la Cour du Roi de Siam.

More on the public service required of every subject and how Siam was not really self sufficient.

Six Months service of everyone of his subjects per annum: a service which he or his officers frequently extend much further…This service is sometimes esteemed and aid in ready money; and it is for the ready money that the rich are exempted.

***

His other revenues do arise from the commerce, which he exercises with his subjects and foreigners. He has carried it to such a degree, that merchandize is now no more the trade of particular persons at Siam. His is not contented with selling by wholesale, he has some shops in the bazaars and markets, to sell by retail.

***

The natural Siameses, ruin’d as they are by impositions and services, cannot carry on a great trade though they should have all the liberty imaginable. The trade is manag’d only with superfluous money, and in the places where the impositions are very great, there is scarcely found money necessary for life. The vast summ levied on the people returns slowly to the people, and especially in the remote provinces; the whole does not return because that a great part thereof remains in the hands of [the princes] (fuedal lords). – Simon de La Loubere, 1693.

From A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam.

Lastly on the dealings inside the court and the betrayal of King Narai by Pitracha

Pitracha replied that since ill health had prevented his majesty from attending to affairs of the state, he, Pitracha had been obliged to assume control upon advice of the court, until such time as his majesty’s health be restored. That PRa Pi and Oya Vichaiyen were found guilty of death by the privy council. - Father de Beze 1688
(Pra Pri and Oya Vichaiyen were trusted advisors and rivals to Pitracha in the court. Pitracha would also find an excuse to have the King’s brother executed on charges of treason)

From Revolution in Siam: The Memoir of Father de Beze

Of course none of these infringes on freedoms mattered since freedom and human rights are poisonous anyways

Castle on a Cloud.

There is a castle on a cloud
I like to go there in my sleep
There in the castle on the cloud
Where all men reside in their sleep

There is a castle here on earth
It lays yonder on the hill
The castle is small and made of dirt
But a castle is a castle
through a peasants window sill

The lords and knights who attend the tables
They sit and speak of Rome
The peasants who clean the ladles
Only stand and speak of home

No soliloquy suits them, they would not understand
No pageantries either, only smiles and helpful hands
They are just little people, but little people grow
And they become big, so watch out you know

You cannot stem history, the tide which has no ebb
You cannot stem freedom, so let it flow instead

When little people sing and little people fight
Then little people will set the world alight

Be careful what you wish for, be careful what I warn
The death and destruction preached for
Will only bring forlorn

Be careful what you ask for, be wary of the crowd
Be careful because what are earthen structure
Compared to castles on a cloud

Photo Credits go to Myself and Florian Witulski (@vaitor)

3:30 pm Early dinner at a noodle shop. The owner was very nice.

3:44pm Bathroom time, loud sporadic noises, then silence

4:00 pm Silence

4:10 pm The BTS is closed, apparently violence happened, security guards were very nice

4:20 pm Walking around trying to find a cab, sporadic bursts of 99482.mm mark iv version 3.0 beta test in the distance

4:22 pm found a tuk tuk, says hotel unsafe, ping pong show better, he is very nice

4:50 pm ping pong show very nice.

6:00 pm returned to hotel under fire, everyone so brave,

6:15 pm silence

6:30 pm silence, so cold…

6:35 pm sporadic sounds of head hitting the desk as even I am bored by my own tedium.

Dear Mr Somtow,
I have had the chance to read your letter and its benevolent and kind terms to the people whose lives a few days prior you had argued were forfeit. How noble and kind you are to afford them such mellifluous and didactic words ascertaining their guaranteed eventual emancipation. Since we are all the same race let us call yours, ‘the rich man’s burden’.

While we are not in disagreement about certain things, the common red has been misled, they are guilty of violence and arson and destruction of public and private property, can you truly sit there in your smugness and afford them the one line of acknowledgement that the most blood was shed by those wearing red?

As for your mountain analogy, while beautiful and no doubt heartfelt, it is people like you who have cause the divisions deep within this country. For example the democrats pride themselves on being the oldest political organization in the country so my question is for the entirety of its existence where has there been the effort to reach out the ‘uneducated’ that everyone seems to be complaining about now.  How can you expect a people to readily accept reconciliation when moments before it was words of contempt and vitriol? How can people accept a message that is forced down their throats. You do not build a peaceful society on violent foundations.

Perhaps you should write a letter to your own supporters and the people who hang onto your every word, perhaps you should set the record straight on the people who call for the massacre of the so called buffaloes. The problems with this country are not the undereducated who would be misled, but the elite who continually mislead them. How do you expect emancipation and knowledge when the press is restricted, the information is distorted and the government can play god when it comes to media deciding what is right what is wrong?

An independent inquiry is needed I agree, but how independent and fair do you think it will be? It remains to be seen but as a student of history (and not music) I remain skeptical. Might I remind you of the Mahmudiyah Killings where AMERICAN were tried and found guilty because for the death of civilians in Iraq.  There are enough eyewitnesses, and many who are not Dan River or CNN, who have seen soldiers used unrestrained force. Let me be the first to say that there was much restraint on the 9^th but much does not translate to enough. We should not be found wanting when it comes to humanism and civil liberties. There is no justification for using deadly force en masse.

Finally, for this country to move on, the rules of a democratically elected government must be respected. Abhisit’s government in legality is legal, but when the next election comes and what will surely be an opposition victory, can you honestly guarantee the same clowns (not terrorists) who closed down the airport wont come out again claiming proxy rules et cetera. If you can then I will bite the bullet and shake your hand, if there is no independent inquiry and no guarantee that the next election will be respected, reconciliation will be a hard road indeed.

Sincerely,

Cod Satrusayang

Recently, many so-called “journalists” have made me seriously reconsider their agencies as a source for news which support my worldview. According to a Dusit Poll, 51% of Thais feel that international news networks are obviously biased and in the pay of terrorist fugitive former caretaker prime minister Thaksin, whereas 12% feel they are accurate and unbiased. 26% were neutral on this issue.

Now that you have insinuated that the handsome and reasonable statesman His Excellency Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power illegitimately and should think about testing his mandate at the polls, or at least stop shooting people who suggest such a course of action, many of your reports have now been called into question.

Were the Basij really bad people, or just misunderstood citizens who cared about their country? Did 711 happen? Did man land on the moon, or was it just an ill-intentioned action designed to cause social chaos?

As journalists reporting in Thailand, you have the inherent professional duty to demand the blood of the dark-skinned Khmer terrorists, and remind us of what a unique menace Thaksin presented to society and how the Red Shirts want to bring him back and make him the Head of State. Or at least have the self-decency to not comment on politics at all.

We are really upset at how you have not only failed to do this, but have sank to the depths of publishing images and stories about unarmed terrorists being shot by soldiers carrying the latest in sophisticated assault rifles and heavy body armour, when the terrorists were clearly holding foot clappers and saying VERY BAD THINGS about our KING!!!!!!!

Obviously, this puts you in a tricky situation as our national cable network, True, is headed by none other than SUCHINDA himself, who knows how to deal with upstarts and communists like yourselves… unless he’s been promoted to head the CPB by now or something. And thanks to the fact that Thailand has the highest income disparity in all of Asia and my fellow poo-yai’s are the only ones who can afford CNN as an optional extra- you better telling us what we want to hear!!! Don’t forget, you are competing with quality sources of information including the Nation!!!!!!!!!

You guys are pretty lazy journalists anyway. Swanning around in your flak jackets and helmets all day, enjoying the weather, the ambience and the fireside chats. The REAL reporters are sweating it out trying to come up with something worth printing out of Panitan’s incoherent ramblings! Start doing your homework. Start finding out the things that make people uncomfortable talking about… and don’t fucking talk about them! Start interviewing the Silent Majority (if you can get them to say anything.) You know the ones, the ones that Abhisit speaks on behalf of when he says he speaks on behalf of the majority.

And go easy on our soldiers. Your choice of sensational vocabulary and terminology in every newscast or news report, and choice of images to broadcast, has resulted in law-abiding soldiers who have been subject to months of intense values-deprogramming, abuse and propaganda in the barracks and are ready to release some tension being portrayed as the BAD GUYS, when clearly it is the filthy, rude, dark-skinned THAKSIN TERRORISTS who contaminate our renowned shopping malls and shoot each other from great distances for fun! You have misled international human rights organisations which, much like our own in Thailand, rely on third-hand reports and press releases when gauging the situation on the ground!

I implore and urge you to please take serious action to correct or reverse the grave injustice that has been done to the Thai nation (established by a fascist regime allied with the Axis powers during WW2), her government (the one that the Privy Council is backing at the time), and the majority of law-abiding, Democrat or PAD voting Thai citizens and expatriate sex-tourists and rent-seekers by having endorsed and widely circulated poorly researched and misrepresented news coverage of the current ongoing political unrest and escalating violence in Thailand.

And start wising up to the REAL cause of the problems in Thailand. Who by the way… has cancer and is now dead! Really really!

Copies of this open letter have also been distributed to other local as well as international news media and social networks for public information. Please feel free to contact me further should you require any additional concrete and reputable evidence in substantiation and corroboration of my complaints and claims stated hereinabove.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

THAKSIN
…
I mean,
Napas Na Pombejra, A.B. C.C.D. (Lond.)
Bangkok, Thailand
May 17, 2010

Addendum

Enclosed herewith for your attention and information some examples of other quality international news bulletins by respectable foreign journalists so you may assess at your leisure the sub-par quality and misleading nature of Mr. Rivers and Ms. Sniders’ journalism:

The Nation
ASTV
TAN (ie. ASTV 2)
MCOT (unless there is an election)

Here is the original http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=390511677967&comments
- Cod