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.
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.
The big news in Bangkok today is that the city’s long-awaited new airport has finally opened.
— CNN:
Bangkok opens much-delayed air hub
— Spluch:
World class airport with no air-conditioning?
— More airport photos at 2Bangkok.com.
— The award for best airport story goes to the IHT’s Tom Fuller:
Key passages:
The official inauguration of Suvarnabhumi, which is pronounced Sawana-poom, will be the latest in what has become a sort of Asian ritual in recent years: As national economies rise, governments discard the crowded, often improvised old airports and open giant, gleaming replacements. In Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and now Bangkok the new airports are the cathedrals of international air travel, with soaring glass facades and cavernous departure halls.
But the official opening of Suvarnabhumi on Thursday comes with some added baggage, and not the kind that passengers carry to check-in counters. This is political baggage.
The airport project floundered for about 40 years before Thaksin Shinawatra came to power in 2001. Thaksin, a leader whose motto could have been “I don’t want to hear excuses,” pushed through the airport’s construction and sought to open it before elections that were to be held in October or November.
Those elections were called off last week when military leaders removed Thaksin from power. Now, with the prime minister gone, the airport has become a symbol of the ambivalence that the country feels toward him.
While Thaksin was appreciated for an aggressive, can-do style that brought universal health care to the country and paid back the debts owed to the International Monetary Fund, Thaksin also came to be seen as too aggressive in a country that highly values politeness. And his administration was dogged by allegations of conflicts of interest and corruption.
“He got it done. No other government was able to do it,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok who has written about the airport. “On the other hand he cheated along the way and took a lot for his cronies.”
And:
In terms of geography, the move is a step down. Don Muang means “city on a hill” while the area around Suvarnabhumi used to be called cobra swamp before being given its present name, which means golden land. Don Muang will handle cargo and some catering for a few weeks or months and then will be used for charter and government flights.
“Cobra swamp.” Awesome.
(Emphasis mine.)
Other stories:
— Ismail Wolff has an op-ed in the NYT recounting his experience of the coup here in Bangkok:
The Silk Revolution
— AP:
Thailand’s coup leaders struggle for acceptance abroad
And last but certainly not least:
— BBC:
Thai generals ban go-go dancers
— Here’re more pics on a Thai Web site.
Only in Thailand, my friends. Only in Thailand.
I’ve got a new story over at Tripmaster Monkey. It’s called “My First Coup.”
[Image via 2Bangkok.com]
I’m particularly busy at the moment, so my daily postings regarding the “smooth as silk” coup will be a bit sparse for a little while. In the meantime, check out BangkokPundit, who’s doing a great job of keeping tabs on the situation.
AP:
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra may have whisked some of his assets out of the country aboard two aircraft days before a military coup ousted him from power, airline officials said Sunday.
An official from Thai Airways International, who demanded anonymity because company policy did not allow him to speak to the press, said he wanted the new ruling military council to investigate the incidents.
Speculation has been rife in Thailand that Thaksin may have snuck money out of the country in the days leading up to the coup, but there has been no confirmation from the council.
Thaksin departed for Finland to begin a foreign tour on September 9, loading up his government-assigned aircraft with 58 large suitcases and trunks, the official of the national carrier said.
The prime minister’s aircraft, named Thai Koofah, was then inexplicably left parked in Finland for more than a week as Thaksin continued on his trip on other transportation.
A second aircraft carrying 56 suitcases — an Airbus 340-600 — was dispatched from Bangkok to meet up with the prime minister just days before the coup, the Thai Airways official said.
Another official in the airline industry, requesting anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, confirmed the second flight, saying it left on September 17 — two days before the military toppled Thaksin in a bloodless coup.
It was unclear why Thaksin needed a second aircraft when his own plane was already assigned to fly him to Europe and the United States.
Speculation has surfaced about whether Thaksin knew of the coup in advance and moved some of his vast assets out of the country.
(Emphasis mine.)