Behind The Smile

There was a piece in the Guardian recently, like yesterday, calling for a republic in this South East Asian country. I guess the elite is not at all far from worry at the moment as they deal with The Next In Line.

Despite all the ranting and raving, as expats you can have a very nice life in Bangkok. A bif aaprtment with a pool, a maid to do your ironing, cooking and cleaning, weekends to tropical islands, beautiful boys and girls galore. It makes up for all the political instability, I guess.

Well, we can learn a thing or two from that Burmese "official" in Hong Kong who wrote that the Rohingya boat people were ugly as ogres. Racism aside, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Frankly, I thought there were some good looking ones among them. One my Thai friends said so. So it must be true. And when I saw this sad picture on the CNN website I was sure.

Although I don’t agree with his socialist ideological stand one of he few Thai intellectuals who was able to come up with coherent arguments in a political discussion has had to flee the country. I agree with his distaste for the hereditary principle.

In Thailand we deal, with roadblocks, blocked minds, drainage blocks, and so forth. Now there is the campaign to block the Internet. Especially some 50000 websites that some people don’t like. Nobody knows the exact number. That makes these sites all the more interesting for the rest of us of course. These few blockers are not so much worried about porn, it seems, as about the ones under whose feet we are merely dust.

Sidewalks are for walkers, as far as I know. But not in Bangkok, where they are the domain of hawkers, motorcycles and other assorted inconveniences. The result is that the most comfortable walks in Bangkok are in the shopping malls.