Last Peter Reid post, I promise, but I wanted to put the matter to rest, given my obsession with ongoing interest in the situation: Peter Reid is officially off to Stoke City. Steve Darby, who was Reid’s assistant, is now acting national team coach.
BBC story is here, AFP story is here, and Bangkok Post story is here.
Bangkok Post: “Nation marks 09/09/09 for King”
The government joined Thais nationwide in paying respect to His Majesty the King, the ninth monarch of the Chakri Dynasty, at 9.09am on the auspicious date of the ninth day of the ninth month of 2009.
There’s also this earlier item, which provides more details.
Today’s NYT/IHT has a story about Thailand’s southern insurgency (“Muslim Insurgents Confound Military in Thailand”). There’s also a map and a video on the left side of the page.
For more on the current state of affairs in the south — where 3500 people have died since 2004 — here are some additional news stories and analysis:
Some links that have caught my eye of late:
Many foreign news organizations are reporting that Peter Reid, who has coached Thailand’s national soccer team for the past year, is leaving to take the assistant’s job at English Premier League outfit Stoke City. ((If you’re wondering where Stoke is located, consult this handy map of English Premier League teams that I mentioned earlier.))
Here are stories from BBC Sport (“Reid content with assistant role”) and PA (“Reid claims agreement over Stoke move”). And there’s this ESPN Soccernet piece (“Reid ready for back-seat role under Pulis at Stoke”), which cites quotes from Reid that ran on BBC Radio Stoke.
But today’s Bangkok Post has this story — “Worawi says Reid will stay”:
The Peter Reid saga continued yesterday when Thai football chief Worawi Makudi insisted that he will remain as Thailand’s national team coach.
Worawi, who is in England as guest of the English FA, said he had talked to the former Sunderland and Leeds manager who confirmed he will return to Thailand.
“I have talked to him on the phone and he says he wants to continue as Thailand’s coach,” said the president of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT).
Reid, 53, has been quoted as saying in the English media that he is leaving Thailand and will become Stoke City manager Tony Pulis’ assistant.
And:
Worawi said he will meet Reid in Manchester tomorrow to get a clear-cut answer from him in person.
“I will ask him to make it clear. It will be an end to the confusing matter if he says he wants to continue coaching Thailand,” Worawi said.
“But if he wants to terminate the contract, then I can’t do anything.”
Stay tuned…
(Thanks to @bangkokbugle for the tip.)
Some links that have caught my eye of late:
Here’s a cell phone pic of today’s Bangkok Post front page, which features two train stories. Glancing at the paper might give you the impression that the articles are related, but they’re not.
The headline, “Train services return to normal,” refers to the recent strike by Thailand’s train workers. As the headline says, service is scheduled to resume today.
The image, caption, and second article, however, refer to Monday’s Metro crash in Washington, DC that killed nine people and injured many more. Two trains collided on the city’s red line.
(As it happens, Thai trains may be running again. But service along DC’s red line is, understandably, still “severely impacted.“)
A story in the current Economist sums up the political landscape in Thailand.
Discussed here are PM Abhisit, the red shirts, the yellow shirts (and the PAD’s new political party), and the insurgency in Thailand’s south. Worth a read.
A quick note about H1N1 here in Thailand. Infections continue to spread — the Nation newspaper tells today us that there are now 518 confirmed cases, up from just 16 last week. And the Bangkok Post has a breakdown by location within Thailand.
Nevertheless, here in Bangkok — as you might imagine — life continues as usual.
On Tuesday I spent some time talk to people on the street about H1N1. No one was concerned. One woman selling grilled meat told me she wasn’t afraid of H1N1 at all. A motorcycle taxi driver said that he wasn’t worried, even though he has a small child in school. A woman selling lottery tickets told me that she had no fear of H1N1, and besides, she doesn’t eat pork anyway, having switched to fish recently because it’s healthier. (There were — and apparently continue to be — misconceptions that H1N1 can be contracted by eating pork.)
For further H1N1 news, I suggest consulting the following:
You can also follow me on Twitter, as I’ve been relaying some H1N1 news there periodically.
H1N1 infections in Thailand have increased markedly over the past few days. Confirmed cases are now at 310, up from just 16 last week.
Here are three recent stories:
The confirmed case of Type-A (H1N1) influenza cases in Thailand has risen to 310, Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nopamornbodi announced Tuesday.
He said the Public Health Ministry will Tuesday hold a meeting of doctors nationwide to make preparations to cope with the more outbreaks.
Despite the increase of the cases, Manit pleaded the public not to panic.
The number of A(H1N1) influenza cases in Thailand had risen to 310 after 109 new cases were reported on Tuesday, Public Health permanent secretary Prat Boonyavongvirot said.
Dr Prat said the Ministry of Public Health will now hold a press conference on the H1N1 outbreak everday at around 11am to prevent any misleading information.
He said the number of H1N1 flu cases would likely increase, but it was not unusual since other countries also encountered the same problem.
The Public Health Ministry is asking provincial health and hospital chiefs not to speak to the media about influenza A (H1N1) cases in an effort to calm disquiet over the extent of the spread of the virus.
Ministry spokesman Suphan Sithamma said a letter was being sent to senior health figures warning them not to say anything about the number of flu cases and details about the patients. All information was to be filtered through health authorities in Bangkok.
The ministry’s hush-hush order came as the number of flu cases passed the 200 mark and experts expected it to rise further.