Tag: Bangkok

Hello Kitty Armband for Misbehaving Thai Police

Hello Kitty Armband for Misbehaving Thai Police [not my image]

I’d seen this amusing item a few days back, but thanks to reader Paul D for pointing it out again.

Seth Mydans, in the New York Times:

It is the pink armband of shame for wayward police officers, as cute as can be with a Hello Kitty face and a pair of linked hearts.

No matter how many ribbons for valor a Thai officer may wear, if he parks in the wrong place, or shows up late for work, or is seen dropping a bit of litter on the sidewalk, he can be ordered to wear the insignia.

“Simple warnings no longer work,” said Pongpat Chayaphan, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok, who instituted the new humiliation this week.

“This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor,” he said. “Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It’s not something macho police officers want covering their biceps.”

Ten of the armbands have been prepared, but so far none have actually been issued, according to an officer who declined to give his name while discussing this sensitive topic.

Related: The Hello Kitty Jet.

An Overview of Thailand’s Political Situation

Anti-Coup Protester in Thailand [not my image]

Richard Bernstein’s Letter from Thailand, in yesterday’s IHT, provides an overview of the current political situation in Thailand:

About a week ago, the Thai press reported on a 30-year-old man, apparently not a brilliant one, who, for unexplained reasons, was tormenting an elephant. He hit the animal, according to the newspapers, whereupon the usually placid beast wrapped the man in his trunk, slammed him down, and trampled him to death.

This may be stretching a point, but it seemed to me, visiting Thailand after an absence of a few years, that the elephant-kills-man story is a pretty good metaphor for the delicate state of Thai politics these days, almost a year after an army coup overthrew a democratically elected government that had run afoul of important segments of Thai society.

The ruling coup’s leadership is the elephant in this scheme of things, striving to be a useful beast, indeed making plans to exit the stage as soon as its plans for a constitutional referendum and new elections, all by the end of the year, have been carried out.

But then there are those people angry about military rule and, in some cases, allied to the government of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that was overthrown last September.

They have been trying, in the name of democracy, to get all Thailand sufficiently riled up to attack the elephant.

So far, however, the elephant has trampled them.

Bangkok 8: Coming to the Big Screen

Bangkok 8: Coming to the Big Screen

Variety:

Millennium Films has optioned “Bangkok 8,” the first in a three-book bestselling mystery series by John Burdett. “V For Vendetta” helmer James McTeigue is attached to direct.

In “Bangkok 8,” a detective with the Royal Thai Police Force tracks the murderers of his partner, and also a U.S. Marine. The trail leads through Bangkok’s drug and sex trade, and corrupt colleagues. Burdett, who just published “Bangkok Haunts,” the third Thai-flavored novel in the series, lives in Bangkok and knows the terrain. ICM auctioned the books last week, and Millennium’s Avi Lerner stepped up and got the property over several studios. Lerner will produce with Boaz Davidson, John Thompson and Joe Gatta.

The intention is to adapt several of the books and shoot in Thailand.

I recommend Burdett’s books highly.

And by the way, speaking of Thai-related flicks, when does that new Rambo movie open? May of 2008, according to Wikipedia.

Categories
Misc.

Songkran in Bangkok

I’ve got a new Globorati post about where to celebrate Songrkan in Bangkok.

Categories
Misc.

The Revival of Bangkok’s Shophouses

Shophouses in Bangkok [not my image]

Jenn Chen recently had a great story in the IHT about how a growing number of people are renovating Bangkok’s once-neglected shophouses.

Here’s more info on shophouses. (I was lucky enough, last year, to check out a number of particularly well-maintained examples in Penang, Malaysia. And when I ventured further south, I stayed in a converted shophouse in Kuala Lumpur.)

Categories
Misc.

Five Mistakes Tourists Make in Bangkok

The fine folks at Jaunted asked me to write a brief post about mistakes that tourists make in Bangkok. Here’s what I said.

Previously, Phil Lees — the author of the excellent blog Phnomenon — wrote about what not to do in Phnom Penh.

Categories
Misc.

Welcome Back, Don Muang!

IHT/AP:

Bangkok’s old airport, Don Muang, was set to reopen Sunday to help ease congestion at the city’s troubled new international airport as its taxiways and main terminal undergo repairs, officials said.

They said Don Muang will handle some Thai Airways domestic flights and all routes for domestic budget carriers Nok Air and One-Two-Go.

“During the initial period of service resumption, Don Muang will handle about 140 flights daily,” said Kulya Pakakrong, acting president of Airports of Thailand, which runs both airports.

Bangkok’s new US$3.8 billion (€2.9 billion) Suvarnabhumi Airport was intended to be Southeast Asia’s leading air transportation hub. But it has been plagued by a host of widely publicized problems, including cracks in taxiways, a shortage of toilets, dozens of design flaws and a long list of corruption allegations.

(Thanks for the link, Khun B.)

Bangkok’s Teo + Namfah Gallery

BAYAR Exhibition at Bangkok's Teo + Namfah Gallery [Not My Painting]

That’s the subject of my most recent Gridskipper post.

Categories
Misc.

Bangkok: Winning the War Against Air Pollution

Tom Fuller had a great story in this weekend’s IHT. It’s about Bangkok’s successful campaign to curb air pollution:

Black smoke billowing from tailpipes into the humid, tropical air was once a Bangkok trademark. But a decade and a half after Thailand began a battle for better air quality, this erstwhile icon of smog has emerged as a role model for Asia’s pollution-choked capitals, boasting considerably cleaner air than Beijing, Jakarta, New Delhi and Shanghai.

Some buses here still belch toxic vapor. And Thailand’s political future is hard to plot as the country seeks to extricate itself from the tangled legacy of the military-led coup last September. Yet the skies in Bangkok on most days are blue, thanks to the work of a small, dedicated group of bureaucrats who pressed the case for cleaner air despite a history of weak, short-lived governments.

“There’s a huge difference when you walk around the streets,” said Jitendra Shah, a coordinator at the World Bank for environment and social issues in Southeast Asia who has worked in Bangkok since the 1990s. “Breathing is definitely easier.”

Thailand’s battle against air pollution provides a virtual how-to manual of environmental cleanup, say Shah and other air quality experts in Asia. Thai officials cajoled oil companies to produce cleaner fuel, used higher taxes to phase out the once-ubiquitous two- stroke motorcycles and converted all taxis to run on clean-burning liquefied petroleum gas. They overcame lobbying campaigns from the large, mostly Japanese-owned car industry and imposed progressively stricter emissions controls based on European norms (Thailand had no emissions standards before 1992).

[NB: don’t miss the photos that accompany the story; many of them were taken in Lumphini Park, which is a few hundred meters from my house.]

Eating Fish and Chips with Austin

Eating Fish and Chips in Bangkok

Last week I went down to Banglamphoo to eat fish and chips with Austin Bush, of RealThai fame. Check out his excellent description and pics. In the image above, I’m getting down to business with some fried snapper.