Torrential rains hit Bangkok last night; I ended up stuck in a Starbucks — stupidly sans umbrella or even rain jacket — until the storm abated. I snapped these pics on my way back to my apartment. As you can see, there was some serious flooding. And more may be in store…
Austin Considine and I have a story in today’s New York Times travel section about Thailand, tourism, and the recent military coup.
Apropos of nothing, a funny pic for you, my dear readers. Would that I snapped it. Click for a bigger version.
Enjoy the weekend.
(Via.)
Legendary Timesman R.W. (Johnny) Apple Jr. has shuffled off this mortal coil.
Quoth the Times’s Todd Purdum:
R. W. Apple Jr., who in more than 40 years as a correspondent and editor at The New York Times wrote from more than 100 countries about war and revolution, politics and government, food and drink, and the revenge of living well, died yesterday in Washington. He was 71.
The cause was complications of thoracic cancer.
With his Dickensian byline, Churchillian brio and Falstaffian appetites, Mr. Apple, who was known as Johnny, was a singular presence at The Times almost from the moment he joined the metropolitan staff in 1963. He remained a colorful figure as new generations of journalists around him grew more pallid, and his encyclopedic knowledge, grace of expression — and above all his expense account — were the envy of his competitors, imitators and peers.
Mr. Apple enjoyed a career like no other in the modern era of The Times. He was the paper’s bureau chief in Albany, Lagos, Nairobi, Saigon, Moscow, London and Washington. He covered 10 presidential elections and more than 20 national nominating conventions. He led The Times’s coverage of the Vietnam War for two and a half years in the 1960’s and of the Persian Gulf war a generation later, chronicling the Iranian revolution in between.
In honor of his passing, I thought I’d point out his superb story about eating in Bangkok that was published this time last year. Don’t miss it.
Apple also penned an article about ten notable restaurants world-wide that was due to appear this fall; it’s been published posthumously.
My latest Gridskipper post is about a talk and book signing that Tony and Maureen Wheeler, founders of the Lonely Planet guide book empire, gave here in Bangkok on Monday night.
Perhaps this has something to do with coup-related Western media censorship, but A and I saw this on TV recently here in Bangkok. The full text of this screen — which appears sporadically for 30 seconds or so during English-language commercials that feature non-political content on the cable provider UBC — reads:
Please be advised that there may be short disruptions to our satellite transmission due to sun outages from Tue 26 September to Wed 4 October from 06:00 to 15:00 due to a “sun outage”. This is a natural phenomenon that may affect our signal for a few minutes – after which normal transmission will resume. We apologise for any inconvenience.
And here’s the Thai version, for what it’s worth.
What in God’s name is a “sun outage”? Is UBC talking about solar flares? If this is a natural phenomenon, how the hell do they know when, precisely, it’ll occur? Am I going crazy here or what?
Thailand now has an interim Prime Minister. Surayud Chulanont, a retired army general, was appointed yesterday.
BBC:
Thailand prime minister sworn in
The IHT‘s Seth Mydans and Tom Fuller:
Thailand’s junta said Friday that it would not interfere with the workings of the interim government it has promised to appoint. But it said it reserved the right to fire the government in exceptional circumstances.
Peter Kneisel, writing in the Boston Globe, provides some history on coups in Thailand:
Never leave home in autumn. In Thailand, it is a dangerous time for an embattled leader to travel outside the kingdom and a surprising oversight by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that led to his overthrow. He had used his fortune to consolidate power, but neglected to firm up his popularity as he fiddled with the military promotion lists. The lists are leaked in September and published in October. Generals get restless in October, particularly if their careers are at risk.
The naming of retired Gen Surayud Chulanont as interim Prime Minister will cement the impression that the coup was a royal affair
Thai taxi rams into tank in apparent coup protest
The persistent myth of the ‘good’ coup
COMMENT: No matter how Thailand/coup leaders/Gen Surayud tries to paint this the military are yet to withdraw from politics – the military’s position is further entrenched with the new Constitution also approved today. I also don’t imagine he will impress most businessman with his first statement in his office:
“We will concentrate on the self-sufficiency economy that His Majesty the King advocates,” he told a news conference. “We won’t concentrate so much on the
GDP numbers. We would rather look into the indicators of people’s happiness and prosperity.”Nevertheless, Gen Surayud was not chosen to pacify businessman or the international community, but for the domestic audience. He is no technocrat with economic and legal experience, but his distinct advantage is his good reputation in Thailand. This will give him a longer honeymoon period than almost any other military appointed civilian PM in Thailand would have, but he has a tough road ahead of him and the best he can do is come out the situation with his reputation intact. The first thing he will have to learn in his short political career is his popularity will partly depend on economic performance, that is simply politics whether he is an elected PM or not.