Behind The Smile

“The Unkindest Cut” was the headline in The Nation this past Saturday concerning an editorial in Bangkok’s Kom Chad Luek newspaper.

Unkindest Cut? This word has many meaning in the English language. You can perhaps silence a pompous person with a social cut. You are really a joker and fun person if you are a cut up or perhaps a good dancer who can cut the light fantastic. Maybe I should just cut out writing this preamble and get on with The Nation’s article.

The article use of the word cut as in Webster definition to divide into parts with an edged tool <cut bread>, but in the article cut refers to the removal the male penis and testicles. Read on.

According to The Nation, “Kom Chad Luek editorial leader urged the government to speed up the control of clinics performing castrations for underage boys without parental approval.

“With the title Must Tighten Control, the editorial said that a growing number of young transvestites were getting cheap castrations, not only reflecting a social trend where society shows more tolerance to the “third sex”, but also showing lax supervision in the Thai medical sector.

“Moreover, pre-teenage (italics supplied) boys may not know what they want. They are at the stage of soul searching. They may not be ready to take such a major decision by themselves. Some may be homosexual. Pre-teenage boys can be easily confused by their raging hormones. Thus, it is not the right age for them to decide whether they should undergo a sex-change operation.”

Listen mum and dad: if your pre-teenage son knows what he wants and has had appropriate psychological evaluation, bring him to Bangkok on a “medical vacation”. Enjoy Amazing Thailand with its Buddhist temples, glorious beaches as well as its tip top, cutting edge medical facilities. He . . . er she will always be grateful.

“Cut” prices start at a reasonable 80 Euros (US$130, GBP 64) at clinics on just about every street corner.

Is this 300000 dollar meal that was supposed to be served in Lebua still going to happen? It was an exercise in tastelessness. First the guests would fly in a private jet to Isan to look at poor people and then go back to Bangkok the same day for a meal cooked by chefs with Michelin stars. Lebua must have thought that any publicity is good publicity.

A one legged Finnish man died in hospital after he was stabbed many times in his room in the Jomtien Grand Condotel. Important evidence was found in his room such as a false leg, black knickers and a one foot long knife. The man was married but his wife was in Bangkok at the time of the murder. Just another day in paradise.

According to a post in the Bangkok Pundit blog an NGO activist is facing a 1 billion Baht claim for libel. That’s 32 million US dollar. And they want that from a poor NGO. How ridiculous. I guess from now on I have to go shopping at Carrefour and (horrors!) Big C. I have nothing against big companies doing business, but this libel action sounds petty.

According to a The Thai government wants to hack into overseas websites that it does not like. What a bright idea. Source. Long live freedom of speech and human rights.

“Reliable and multiple eyewitness sources in Thailand have reported that Thai military officials, at the apparent direct order of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, in preparation for his upcoming trip to Laos, used teams of military attack dogs led by armed soldiers to intimidate and maul some 12-13 Lao-Hmong refugees at Ban Huay Nam Khao detention center as brutal preparation before forcing them back to the Communist regime” according to a press release. Is Samak showing his true colors?

Sawittee Malaipan, an entomologist at Kasetsart University, according to an item in the Bangkok Post, blames foreigners for the bedbugs on Thai trains. Sure. And all the cockroaches in New York come from Thailand. They’re there on holiday. How did that woman ever become an entomologist? By the way, according to Wikipedia, bedbugs have an interesting way of make little babies: “males pierce females with hypodermic genitalia and ejaculate into the body cavity”. Eeewww.

Lidea is not romantically involved with Thaksin. She has denied it. Anyways, why would an upright family man such as Thaksin have extra marital affiars? Unthinklable. He’s not like client number nine, for sure?

A bunch of imbeciles used their freedom of expression to protest against freedom of expression. They performed this magical feat in front of the Danish embassy in Bangkok. If everybody was as dumb as those 800 protestors, we’d be living in the stone age again. Well, those cave people were probably smarter.

The Nation seems to be quite proud that a fake Ferrari made in Thailand is the star of the show at an exhibition of fakes in Bruxelles.  The rag even talks about ”the genius of counterfeiting”. Does that mean the software counterfeiters at Pantip Plaza are wizz kids as well? And that every kid who copies an MP3 song is an Einstein? My God, where do these people come from?