Phuket crash report released

1 June 2009

Phuketwan.com is reporting that the results of the investigation into the One-Two-Go crash of Flight OG269 at Phuket Airport in 2007 were released today. The report identifies six causes for the tragedy.

The report also made three sets of recommendations, one for the airline, one for Airports of Thailand, and one for the Department of Transport.

The One-Two-Go MD 82 aircraft on a scheduled flight from Bangkok crashed on landing on Phuket early on the evening of September 16, 2007, with the deaths of 90 passengers and crew.

Another 40 survived, many with severe injuries or burns.

The results of the investigation appear to confirm that the pilot froze at the controls at a time when he needed to react to bad weather conditions. The pilot did not following standard operation procedure for going around; he failed to hit the go-around button; he failed to respond to control alerts; co-ordination between the pilot and the co-pilot broke down; both pilots failed to react to the emergency.

The summary of the results also make the point that the pilots were suffering from an accumulation of stress and fatigue.

The airline, One-Two-Go, was advised to more closely review training procedures (cockpit resource management) and flight operations.

Limitations should be placed on the flight hours of the pilots and the aircraft; a safety management system (SMS) needs to be created.

Executives at all levels needed to set values in a corporate culture for following rules and regulations and report unusual developments.

The Airports of Thailand was advised to provide a safety management system; Runways needed to be wider and safer; specific recommendations were made to improve the ability of rescue vehicles to move around Phuket International Airport.

The Department of Transportation was advised to make more thorough checks on One-Two-Go and its parent Orient Thai Airlines.

Coordination with the Bureau of Meteorology needed to be improved.

The release of the report came online at www.aviation.go.th with the Thai version released first. An English version is expected to be released shortly.

1 มิถุนายน 2552 -  ผลการสอบสวนอุบัติเหตุเบื้องต้น กรณีเครื่องบินของบริษัท วัน ทู โก แอร์ไลน์ จำกัด แบบ DC-9-82 (MD-82) เครื่องหมายสัญชาติและทะเบียน HS-OMG ประสบอุบัติเหตุ

I hope this is just a summary of the report; otherwise it took two years to produce a 6 page report without any pictures, diagrams, statistical data.

 

The Urbanisation of Dubai

31 May 2009

To expand the possibilities for beachfront tourist development, Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, undertook a massive engineering project to create hundreds of artificial islands along its Persian Gulf coastline.

Built from sand dredged from the sea floor and protected from erosion by rock breakwaters, the islands were shaped into recognizable forms, including two large palm trees. The first Palm Island constructed was Palm Jumeirah, and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite observed its progress from 2000 to 2009.

In these false-color images, bare ground appears brown, vegetation appears red, water appears dark blue, and buildings and paved surfaces appear light blue or gray. The first image, acquired in November of 2000, shows the area prior to the island’s construction. The image from February 2002, shows the barest beginnings of the artificial archipelago. By October 2002, substantial progress had been made on Palm Jumeirah, with many sandy “palm fronds” inside a circular breakwater.

By November 2003, the palm tree has been constructed, and buildings and vegetation populate Palm Jumeirah in the images from November 2004, October 2005, September 2006, March 2007, and November 2008. The final image, acquired in February 2009, shows vegetation on most of the palm fronds, and numerous buildings on the tree trunk.
Inland, changes are just as dramatic between November 2000 and February 2009.

In the earliest image, empty desert fills the lower right quadrant of the image, as cityscape primarily hugs the coast. As the years pass, urbanization spreads, and the final image shows the area almost entirely filled by roads, buildings, and irrigated land.

The pictures are shown in a low resolution YouTube video. You can see the original Nasa pictures here.

Justice Iranian style

30 May 2009

In Iran today three men were publicly hung after being convicted of involvement for Thursday's bomb attack on a mosque that killed 25 people in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

It took just 36 hours to capture, prosecute, sentence and execute the three men.

A Sunni opposition group named Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which Iran says is part of the Islamist al Qaeda network and backed by the United States, said it was behind the bombing, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Friday.

Ebrahim Hamidi, a local judiciary official, said the men were convicted after going through the normal judiciary process, adding that they were also involved in past "terrorist activities".

Iran has in the past accused the United States of supporting Sunni rebels operating on its border with Pakistan. Tehran repeated the claim on Friday, saying the "terrorists were equipped by America". Washington denied the allegation.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the bombing, saying "no one can doubt that the hands of ... some interfering powers and their spying services are bloodied by the blood of the innocent."

It is less than two weeks before a presidential election in the Islamic Republic.
 

Citizen spies and new political ties

30 May 2009 - from UPI Asia

"This week saw several conflicting developments in Thailand. First, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva became the first of 50,000 “volunteers” in the country to spy on fellow citizens and turn them in to the police or army for acting or speaking in a manner considered to defame the monarchy. The new campaign is designed to protect the monarchy, and also to protect, it is said, citizens who have legitimate complaints against state agencies.

Then on Monday Abhisit informed representatives of Thai government agencies that the country needed to be more aware and proactive with regard to foreign affairs. To top off the foreign affairs agenda, he informed them that Thailand needed to step up cooperation with neighboring countries.

Defining cooperation, especially with regard to neighboring Burma, requires a deft sleight of hand. Burma seems to be in competition with North Korea as the world’s most intransigent ogre, which no one can do much about because it has powerful friends.

On the political side, the People’s Alliance for Democracy held a huge gathering in the main stadium of Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus, as part of a referendum to determine whether the activist movement should officially set up a political party.

The decision has been made, but problems exist. Who will head the new party? Most believe it will be Sondhi Limthongkul – who some time ago swore that he would never accept a political position.

To observers, Sondhi appears to be the glue that could hold the new party together and allow a new generation of PAD leaders to gradually grow into senior positions in the movement. Political parties are expensive animals to feed, however.

Already running into the red with his ASTV network and other media pursuits, Sondhi would probably have to divest himself of these communications organs if he were to serve as party executive. It is not likely he would be willing to do this, but when push comes to shove, he may not have a choice.

In terms of financing the party, Sondhi has indicated it would take over 100 million baht (nearly US$3 million) a month, and suggested that the funds would come from monthly donations by PAD supporters.

According to Sondhi and other PAD backers and supporters, the new party would help protect the monarchy and put a stop to age-old corruption in the political process, where family members and colleagues enjoy the spoils of public funding.

However, the proposal to start a new party is uncomfortably reminiscent of a suggestion made years ago when the late Chatchai Choonhavan – later to be called Thailand’s most corrupt prime minister – along with Suwat Liptapanlop, Korn Dhabbaransri, the late general Arthit Kamlangek and others sat down in Bangkok to propose the creation of a new party to rid the country of political corruption and the same old political games that were causing so many problems.

The earlier meeting was held was 1992. Now, 17 years later, one is tempted to say, “Here we go again.” There is some doubt as to the viability of any new party, especially one led by fanatic monarchists, to bring about real democratic change in the country, especially change that would also protect human rights.

Chatchai Choonhavan, who ended up heading the new Chatpattana Party but was removed from the premiership for corruption, is well known today for sponsoring many projects that supposedly benefitted the country’s most impoverished region, the northeast. He passed away long before the party folded under the Thai Rak Thai mantle and combined with that monolith, only to see its party executives prohibited from political activity for five years due to improper voting procedures by a party executive.

As a result of all this, the new political party merely became another tool of corruption, enriching its executives and party faithful over the subdued party platform of “helping the country and the people.”

Since 2006, when former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted from power and three Thaksin-backed puppet political parties were dissolved, Thai politics have been unsettled. Yet the current Democrat-led government is attempting to tell everyone around the globe that things are “normal.”

Normal may mean continued repression, continued ignoring of international condemnation of human rights abuses and a continued clampdown on free speech and the right to information. If so, then things are indeed back to normal.

With 50,000 volunteers eager to spy on their fellow citizens, with one arrest after another popping up around the country based on Nazi-era reports of unacceptable fellow citizen behavior, with fear growing around the nation among subjects of a kingdom struggling to represent itself as a democracy, but whose rights go only as far as police power – the image of Thailand returning to “normal” is Piccaso-esque at best."

Court whitewash in Tak Bai case

30 May 2009

The unrest in the South of Thailand will not be helped by the decision of the Songkhla Provincial Court which has cleared security officials of misconduct in connection with the Tak Bai incident in which 85 demonstrators were killed in October of 2004.

It should not have taken five years to bring these deaths to trial and the court decision condones the inhumane treatment that was used.

The court ruled that members of the military were just carrying out their duty and could not be blamed for what had happened.

Seven people were killed in a mosque during the crackdown and another 78 demonstrators suffocated to death while they were being transported on trucks taking them to an army camp for detention in neighbouring Pattani province.

More than 1,000 people rallied outside the Tak Bai police station in Narathiwat to demand the release of six village defence volunteers they believed were unfairly detained. The suspects were suspected of having lied to police to protect those involved in a firearms robbery in which state weapons were stolen.

The court said there was no evidence to support the theory that some men in uniform who allegedly assaulted the demonstrators were acting on the orders of their superiors in charge of the crackdown.

Judge Yingyut Tanor-Rachin, who sat with Judge Jutarath Santisevee, said the officials were carrying out their duties and had compelling reasons to transport over 1,000 detained demonstrators from Tak Bai at the Thai-Malaysia border to Ingkayuthaborihaan Army Camp in Pattani on Oct 25, 2004.

Basing its ruling on a post-mortem inquest into the deaths, the court noted that members of the security forces were acting under an emergency law at the time which protected them from civil, criminal or disciplinary liabilities arising from their actions while performing their duty.

On Oct 25, 2004, soldiers cracked down on thousands of demonstrators rallying outside the Tak Bai police station with tear gas, water cannon and batons.

Some 1,292 persons were arrested and detained by the authorities. According to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), those detained were beaten with batons, kicked and punched, some whilst lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs.

The detained persons were then loaded into a trucks where they were piled up in many layers and transferred to Ingkayuthaborihaan army camp in Pattani, a journey which took several hours. A total of 78 people were found dead in the trucks in the incident that occurred during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"The relatives of the victims are not satisfied with the court ruling," said Angkhana Neelaphaijit, chairwoman of the Working Group for Justice and Peace.

"But they can't do anything. All they can do is walk away," she said, adding that some were expected to appeal the verdict.

Human rights advocates following up on the Tak Bai case were also present in the court yesterday.

Many of the relatives who travelled hundreds of kilometres from their hometowns to hear the court decision said they were shocked by the outcome of the trial.

The case was moved to Songkhla province after the families of the victims and the authorities agreed that the trial should be held outside of Narathiwat and Pattani for security reasons.

The Tak Bai incident was one of the many human rights abuses that made the international press turn on then Prime Minister Thaksin.

It is far from clear how the Thai media can claim that Thaksin's human rights record was so poor and then at the same time find it perfectly acceptable that a court holds no one responsible for the death of 85 Thai citizens who suffocated in the back of some trucks.

By exonerating the army from human rights abuses the court exonerates Thaksin's government.
 

Emirates to add more India flights

29 May 2009

Emirates Airline's existing service of 163 flights per week to 10 Indian gateways will be strengthened to 185 over the summer and winter periods with the following additions:

Ahmedabad - Emirates will serve Ahmedabad with a double-daily operation, adding six weekly flights to its existing eight-flights-a-week service. The expansion will be undertaken in a phased manner with three flights added on 2nd June and another three on 26th October.

Chennai - Emirates' Chennai service will become a triple-daily with the addition of two flights between October and December this year, making Emirates the largest international carrier to operate from the city.

Kolkata - Emirates will enhance connectivity to the city with five additional flights from 3rd December, bringing its total frequency to 12 per week.

Kozhikode - The airline will further strengthen its Dubai - Kozhikode connection by adding five flights from 2nd December. Post expansion Emirates will operate 11 flights a week to this port city.

Thiruvananthapuram - Emirates will boost its access to this tourist gateway with the introduction of four additional flights between October and December, bringing its total frequency to the city to 12 flights a week.
 

Air Asia profits from recession

28 May 2009

I used to be a fan of Air Asia in its early pioneering days.

But one truly awful experience, and no reply from from their customer service department and all respect was lost. Even the low cost airlines need to look after their existing customers.

But I am impressed by their financial perfomance. Earlier today AirAsia said that its net profit surged 26 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, reflecting the success of its aggressive network expansion amid the global economic slump.

While major carriers are struggling; Air Asia is enjoying this recession. After two straight quarterly losses the airline recorded a profit of 203.2 million ringgit ($56.4 million) for the quarter through March.

Revenue increased 33 percent to 714 million ($198 million), buoyed by a sharp rise in passenger volume and increased contribution from ancillary income according to the airline.

The airline carried 3.15 million passengers during the period, up 21 percent from a year ago, showing that it had successfully stimulated the market to seize share from competitors.

Tellingly AirAsia accounted for 44 percent of passenger traffic at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur airport during the quarter.

AirAsia said it expects passenger growth of 15 to 20 percent this year despite the economic crisis. In 2008, it carried 11.8 million passengers, up 22 percent from a year ago.

As of March, it said it has a fleet size of 74 operational aircraft and has expanded capacity by 19 percent as it launched seven new routes in the first quarter.

AirAsia said its Thai affiliate posted its best quarterly profit of 298 million baht ($8.5 million) during the January-March period, thanks to increased sales as its rivals scaled back and canceled flights.

Its Indonesian unit is still in the red but losses have narrowed by half to 37 billion rupiah ($3.2 million), it said.

One small threat on the horizon; rising fuel prices; as the airline has been buying at spot prices rather than hedging its fuel needs.

The MPs falling on swords list

28 May 2009

The list so far of MPs resigning from Parliament as a result of revelations about their more extravagant and outrageous expense claims is as follows: more heads should roll: in the meantime anyone announcing that they will stand down at the next election should be doing so now. It is not good enough that the are still claiming public funds after being wholly discredited.

Julie Kirkbride, Conservative To quit after revelations that she claimed money to part-fund an extension to her home so her brother could live there.

Margaret Moran, Labour Announced she will stand down at the next election after reports that she claimed £22,500 for treating dry rot in her husband's home in Southampton, more than 100 miles from her constituency.

Michael Martin, Speaker Forced out after a rebellion in the chamber from MPs critical of his handling of the expenses controversy. He spent more than £1,400 on chauffeurs in his Glasgow constituency.

Sir Peter Viggers, Conservative Has faced ridicule for filing a £30,000 claim to cover a gardening bill which included a floating duck island for his pond.

Douglas Hogg, Conservative Claimed for the costs of dredging the moat around his country estate, as well as for piano tuning, stable repairs and a housekeeper's salary.

Anthony Steen, Conservative Decided against standing for re-election after it was revealed he had spent £87,729 in four years towards the upkeep of his £1m mansion, including for tree surgery and a wrought iron fireplace. Said he did not know "what the fuss is about" and people were "jealous" of his "very, very large house".

Ben Chapman, Labour The first from the Labour benches to announce his retirement at the next election, after he was accused of overclaiming £15,000 for mortgage interest.

Ian McCartney, Labour Former Labour chairman will leave parliament at the next election because of "health problems" after repaying back almost £15,000 worth of expenses claims, including for an 18-piece dinner set, champagne flutes and wine glasses, a £700 dining table and chairs, and two sofas worth £1,328.

Andrew MacKay, Conservative David Cameron's former parliamentary aide announced he would not seek re-election after revelations that he claimed second-home expenses on a property that his wife, Julie Kirkbride, declared as her main home.

Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton, Conservative Resigning after it was revealed they claimed £120,000 in expenses to rent a flat from a family trust controlled by their children over six years.
 

ASEAN on trial again

28 May 2009 - Editorial - New Straits Times

Note just how different this editorial is from the Bangkok Post.

"WHILE Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer does not know whether to be "happy or sad", since she is still in prison and on trial though no longer under house arrest, the delicacy of her health and the frailty of her political condition leave no room for ambivalence and prevarication. Of course, the tin soldiers in charge, who have put the opposition in chains and silenced domestic dissent, want the rest of the world to shut up, too, and stay out of their domestic dealings. And so does Asean, in keeping with its sacrosanct principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of one another. Even when it was not possible to remain blind, dumb and deaf when the internal turned into the infernal in Myanmar, the regional grouping has chosen to speak softly rather than strongly, as reflected in the most recent expression of "grave concern" over Suu Kyi's trial and the commitment to constructive engagement by the Asean chair.

Certainly, the tougher words which have emanated from other quarters have had no more effect on the stiff-necked generals than the muted response from Asean, and neither have their sanctions. No doubt, in an organisation which renounces the use of force, believes in the peaceful resolution of conflicts and eschews mechanisms to penalise unyielding members, the only recourse is to dialogue and diplomacy. But the military junta in Myanmar has been a festering regional sore for far too long to warrant diplomatic niceties and kid-glove treatment. Suu Kyi may be in the dock on account of the unwelcome visit of an eccentric American, but Asean has been on trial for many years now because of its failure to rein in the maverick in its midst. It may only be words, but since words are all it seems to have, the least that its members should do is to send an unequivocal message to the prickly generals by speaking -- openly, loudly and clearly, collectively or individually -- or forever hold its tongue.

It would seem that China and India prefer to say little and do not want to use strong words. Neither do they have to. They should be able to speak softly and privately to the generals and still be heard. As Myanmar's largest investment and trading partners, the two Asian giants have the leverage that Asean does not have. But so far they have shown little inclination to use their considerable behind-the-scenes influence. It is time Asean prods its two Asian partners to do more to help in its trials and tribulations over Myanmar.

Etihad's predictable Manchester sponsorship

27 May 2009

Given that Abu Dhabi owns Manchester's second team - Manchester City - it was inevitable that Manchester City would confirm a new three-year shirt sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways.

The Abu Dhabi-based national airline of the United Arab Emirates takes over from Thomas Cook as the football club’s shirt sponsor.

The deal, believed to be worth £30m over four years, was announced on Saturday at the City of Manchester Stadium by Etihad Airways’ chief executive, James Hogan, City’s chief executive Garry Cook and Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council.

The partnership will include team tours to the UAE and South Africa and see investment in community schemes in the Emirates and East Manchester. The airline is headed by His Highness Ahmed Bin Saif Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family and a relative of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who heads the Abu Dhabi United Group.

The first outing of the new shirt will be during a pre-season tour to South Africa in July.

Thailand's shrinking economy

27 May 2009

You can read the details and the analysis at Thai Crisis.

In summary: and these are official Thai government statistics:

GDP in 1Q 09 drastically contracted by 7.1%, compared with a decrease of 4.2% in 4Q08, due to world economic crisis which severely affected goods and services exports, a main contributor of Thai economy.

Export value of goods in dollar terms decreased by 19.9%, whereas import value reduced dramatically by 38.3%. Moreover, investment shrank by 15.8%, along with household consumption expenditure which reduced by 2.6%.

What does it mean; Thailand’s economy shrank more than the Government had forecast the first quarter, contracting the most in a decade as the nation slid into a recession. Remember these are Q1 figures; reported on 26 May 2009. Q2 is almost over and will be equally horrible.

Neither the Bangkok Post or the Nation lead with this news; both newspapers seem to believe that Prime Minister Abhisit is still the golden boy of Thai politics; rather than someone who has ceded most offices with economic influence to Newin and his cronies in order to hang on to his ill-gotten office.

The storm underlying the calm

27 May 2009

I had a heated discussion yesterday with an old friend who argued that foreigners do not understand Thai culture; that Thaksin had to be removed because he was stealing from the country and that therefore the coup was necessary and that the Economist and the BBC (in particular Jonathan Head) were telling lies about Thailand. Not that one example could be given of any article or broadcast that had given such offence.

It was interesting then to read this morning the article by Nirmal Ghosh in The Straits Times. Tellingly he says that "in Thailand’s polarised environment, however, expressing opinions freely is like negotiating a minefield."

The article follows:

"Relative calm has returned to Thailand after the turmoil of April – but all is not what it seems. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva may have won the latest round against the “red shirt” protesters. Yet he is surrounded by the tightest security for any premier in recent memory – and it is handled by the army, not the police.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya rarely sleeps in the same place every night, and his security too is handled by the army.

These are but the outward signs of a complex conflict over power, justice and democracy that many say could last for years. Professor Michael Nelson of Germany’s University of Passau, for instance, speaking recently at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, thought that the country was in the midst of a “latent and sometimes manifest conflict between monarchism and democracy that has not been resolved since it (began) in 1932”.

In 1932, Thailand changed from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Fifty years later, in 1982, political science professor Chai-anan Samudvanij wrote of “a conflict between two alternative bases of legitimacy, one emanating from traditional hierarchical traditions, the other based on popular sovereignty”. Prof Chai-anan is today an ideologue of the yellow-shirted, royalist People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

The tension he wrote of has grown, not lessened, since 1982, squeezing bit by bit the room for measured discussions of the future.

The PAD believes politicians buy votes to get into power and are beholden to their financiers. The masses, it contends, are ill-informed, easily bought and therefore not ready for democracy.

It cites former premier Thaksin Shinawatra as the most potent example of a politician who subverts the system for his own ends, and wants to restore the status quo ante – the “balance” it claims existed before Thaksin upset it.

The Democrat Party seems to want the same thing. A senior government insider told The Straits Times: “We have no choice but to restore (the balance).”

Thaksin’s manipulation of the system disrupted what Chulalongkorn University’s Thitinan Pongsudhirak refers to as the “consensus” of the Thai elites. The last time Thailand was “normal” was in the 1990s, he said, when “there were certain parameters and consensus among Thai elites about how things work and who calls the shots. This consensus has broken down”.

Part of the reason has to do with the widening wealth gap between Bangkok and the rural poor, a gap which Thaksin exploited.

Western-style democracy does not work in Thailand, PAD argues. Therefore, the country must revert to a semi-appointed parliament, with the traditional elites in charge. The monarchy must be protected from the likes of closet republicans like Thaksin, it adds.

Prime Minister Vejjajiva has begun a review of the Constitution to address controversial clauses that render political parties vulnerable and governments fragile. But the process may take months to complete, leaving him open to accusations that he is stalling for time.

Meanwhile, the PAD’s rivals, the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), is planning a mass rally in the capital next month. The UDD wants the old elites to respect the outcome of elections.

What inflames the UDD’s supporters is a sense of injustice. In their eyes, it is unjust that elected pro-Thaksin governments have been thrown out by the army or by “judicial coups”. Every dismissal of their grievances by the establishment, every example of favourable treatment of the yellow-shirts or the blue-shirted vigilantes deployed against them in Pattaya last month, fuels their resentment.

The assassination attempt that same month on PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul adds a new twist and may lead to unexpected political realignments. There is speculation that elements of the military were behind the attempt.

Interestingly, Mr Sondhi has told foreign journalists that the UDD and PAD do have one thing in common – the desire for change. In the event of an attempted military takeover – which cannot be ruled out, given Thailand’s history – the two movements could find more common ground.

Indeed the UDD is about more than just Thaksin; he is just a rallying point for broader grievances. A leading intellectual, Mr Prawase Wasi, argues that the fights over Thaksin and the supposed plots to destroy the monarchy are “distorting the complexity of justice, simplifying it to a single-dimension issue”.

“In a pluralistic society...there are people who worship the monarchy and those who don’t – it is natural. The key is how to channel the differences towards creative collaboration and output. Justice is the only common ground,” he says.

In Thailand’s polarised environment, however, expressing opinions freely is like negotiating a minefield. Tellingly, as Prof Thitinan sat on the same Foreign Correspondents’ panel with Prof Nelson, friends sent him text messages advising him to be careful.

“We live in a tightening box of space for intellectual honesty,” he says, and it “is shrinking”, warning that it “is dangerous...that we have this tightening because Thai society is pent-up”.

“What you don’t know – the undercurrent – is more dangerous and more combustible,” he points out. "

PAD wants Thailand to be the new North Korea

27 May 2009

What do we have to look forward to by way of policy under the new PAD politcal party?

The party proposes “new politics” - but the real meaning is yet to be clarified. But the PAD leaders have trouble explaining what “new politcs” is about.

Sondhi Limthongkul earlier said it was a new form of politics which allows the public to have a say in administering national affairs rather than leaving the task to a handful of cabinet ministers.

Far more bizarrely another core leader, Phipob Thongchai, wants to turn Thailand into that fine example of North Korea. He said that under “new politics” there would be radical land reform so that every Thai citizen would own a piece of land and be able to make a living. He cited the case of North Korea, saying that although the country is poor and its people are starving, the North Koreans can pride themselves in owning a small piece of land.

There is something very alarming about anyone citing North Korea as an example to look at in a positive way.

Chamlong Srimuang, another key leader, said under the “new politics” concept, MPs and senators would not be paid as politicking should not be treated as a career. Bad idea.
 

What the future looks like

26 May 2009 - The Guardian

Astronomer royal Martin Rees looks into his crystal ball

"It would be foolhardy to venture technological predictions for 2050. Even more so to predict social and geopolitical changes. The most important advances, the qualitative leaps, are the least predictable. Not even the best scientists predicted the impact of nuclear physics, and everyday consumer items such as the iPhone would have seemed magic back in the 1950s.

But there are some trends that we can predict with confidence. There will, barring a global catastrophe, be far more people on Earth than today. Fifty years ago the world population was below 3 billion. It has more than doubled since then, to 6.7 billion. The percentage growth rate has slowed, but it is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. The excess will almost all be in the developing world where the young hugely outnumber the old.

If population growth were to continue beyond 2050, one can't be other than exceedingly gloomy about the prospects. And the challenge of feeding such a rapidly growing population will be aggravated by climate change.

The world will be warmer than today in 2050; the patterns of rainfall and drought across the world will be different. If we pursue "business as usual",

CO2 concentration levels will reach twice the pre-industrial level by around 2050. The higher its concentration, the greater the warming - and, more important still, the greater the chance of triggering something grave and irreversible: rising sea levels due to the melting of Greenland's icecap; runaway release of methane in the tundra.

Some technical advances - information technology, for instance - surprise us by their rapidity; others seemingly stagnate. Only 12 years elapsed between the launch of Sputnik and Neil Armstrong's "one small step" on the moon. Many of us then expected a lunar base, even an expedition to Mars, within 30 years. But it's more than 36 years since Jack Schmitt and Eugene Cernan, the last men on the moon, returned to Earth. Since that time, hundreds of astronauts have been into orbit, but none has ventured further.

The Apollo programme now seems a remote historical episode: young people all over the world learn that America landed men on the moon, just as they learn that the Egyptians built the pyramids; the motivations seem almost as bizarre in the one case as in the other. The race to the moon was an end in itself - a magnificent "stunt", driven by superpower rivalry. Thereafter, the impetus for manned flight was lost. But, of course, we now depend on space in our everyday lives (GPS, weather forecasting and communications). And robotic exploration has burgeoned. Unmanned probes to other planets have beamed back pictures of varied and distinctive worlds.

I hope that by 2050 the entire solar system will have been explored and mapped by flotillas of tiny robotic craft. Robots and "fabricators" may enable large construction projects, using raw materials that need not come from Earth. But will people follow them? The practical case for sending people into space gets ever-weaker with each advance in robots and miniaturisation. But I'm nonetheless an enthusiast for manned missions - to the moon, to Mars and even beyond - simply as a long-range adventure for (at least a few) humans.

Each mobile phone today has far more computing power than was available to the whole of Nasa in the 1960s. And advances proceed apace. Some claim that computers will, by 2050, achieve human capabilities. Of course, in some respects they already have. For 30 years we've been able to buy calculators that can hugely surpass us at arithmetic. IBM's "Deep Blue" beat Kasparov, the world chess champion. But not even the most advanced robot can recognise and move the pieces on a real chessboard as adeptly as a five-year-old child.

Deep Blue didn't work out its strategy like a human player: it exploited its computational speed to explore millions of alternative series of moves and responses before deciding an optimum move. Likewise, machines may make scientific discoveries that have eluded unaided human brains - but by testing out millions of possibilities rather than via a theory or strategy.

But will we continue to push forward the frontiers, enlarging the range of our consensual understanding? Some aspects of reality - a unified theory of physics, or a theory of consciousness - might elude our understanding simply because they're beyond the powers of human brains, just as surely as quantum mechanics would flummox a chimpanzee.

We can with some confidence predict continuing advances in computer power, in IT, in techniques for sequencing and interpreting and modifying the genome. But there could, by 2050, be qualitatively new kinds of change. For instance, one thing that's been unaltered for millennia is human nature and human character. But in this century, mind-enhancing drugs, genetics, and "cyborg" techniques may start to alter human beings themselves.

And we should keep our minds open, or at least ajar, to concepts on the fringe of science fiction. Flaky American futurologists aren't always wrong. They remind us that a superintelligent machine is the last instrument that humans may ever design - the machine will itself take over in making further steps. Another speculation is that the human lifespan could be greatly extended, something that would wreak havoc on all population projections. At the moment this hope leads some to bequeath their bodies to be "frozen" on their death, in the hope of some future resurrection. For my part, I'd still opt to end my days in an English churchyard rather than a Californian refrigerator.

We can make one firm forecast that's important for all "citizen scientists". There will surely be a widening gulf between what science enables us to do, and what applications it's prudent or ethical to pursue.

It's sometimes wrongly imagined that astronomers, contemplating timespans measured in billions, must be serenely unconcerned about next year, next week and tomorrow. But a "cosmic perspective" actually strengthens my own concerns about the here and now.

Ever since Darwin, we've been familiar with the stupendous timespans of the evolutionary past. But most people still somehow think we humans are necessarily the culmination of the evolutionary tree. No astronomer could believe this.

Our sun formed 4.5bn years ago, but it's got 6bn more before the fuel runs out. And the expanding universe will continue - perhaps for ever - becoming ever colder, ever emptier. As Woody Allen said, "Eternity is very long, especially towards the end". Any creatures who witness the sun's demise, here on Earth or far beyond, won't be human. They will be entities as different from us as we are from a bug.

But even in this "concertinaed" timeline - extending millions of centuries into the future, as well as into the past - this century is special. It's the first in our planet's history where one species - ours - has Earth's future in its hands, and could jeopardise not only itself, but life's immense potential.

Suppose some aliens had been watching our planet for its entire history. Over nearly all that immense time - 4.5bn years - Earth's appearance would have altered very gradually. But in just a tiny sliver of its history - the last few thousand years - the patterns of vegetation altered much faster than before. This signalled the start of agriculture. The pace of change accelerated as human populations rose.

Then there were other changes, even more abrupt. Within the last 50 years - little more than one hundredth of a millionth of the Earth's age - the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere began to rise anomalously fast. The planet became an intense emitter of radio waves (TV, cellphone, and radar transmissions.) And something else unprecedented happened: small projectiles launched from the planet escaped the biosphere. Some were propelled into orbits around the Earth; some journeyed to the moon and planets.

If they understood astrophysics, the aliens could confidently predict that the biosphere would face doom in a few billion years when the sun flares up and dies. But could they have predicted this unprecedented spike less than halfway through the Earth's life - these human-induced alterations occupying, overall, less than a millionth of the elapsed lifetime and seemingly occurring with runaway speed?

If they continued to keep watch, what might these hypothetical aliens witness in the next few decades? Will final spasm be followed by silence? Or will the planet itself stabilise? And will some of the objects launched from the Earth spawn new oases of life elsewhere?

The outcome depends on political choices. But those choices can be influenced by effective and idealistic scientists, environmentalists and humanists, guided by the knowledge and technology that the 21st century will offer."

Justice Minister launches yellow guards

26 May 2009

The Thai police seem unable to do their job; and rather than fix the problem Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga has launched his ‘Volunteers to Protect Justice’ initiative.

This is primarily  to organize and train people as a network of spies to inform the authorities specifically on  corruption and lèse majesté cases. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva presided over the event and was registered as the first volunteer.

Abhisit told an audience of about 2,000 at the Thai Army Club on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road that it was government policy to protect and worship (interesting choice of words)  the monarchy, prevent and suppress corruption, and encourage the people to check state authority. And he had always championed the rule of law to reign in this country.

Abhisit said the initiative provided a good opportunity for people to be active in upholding justice and the nation’s essential institution, and it should expand to the provinces as well.

Pirapan said that since he took office, he had received a number of complaints from people about all sorts of abuses and violations, but they had no proper channels to go to.

Isn't that what the police are for? Seems that this is adding to rather than fixing the problem.

Volunteers are supposed to inform the authorities on the issues of lèse majesté, drugs, money laundering, chit funds, financial scams, national security, environmental and natural resource destruction, tax evasion, corruption, violations of the rights and freedoms of the people, and other illegal acts. Seems to cover everything.

Volunteers must be 15 years old or older. Surely 15 is a little bit young and irresponsible to know where the law should be involved. Volunteers will participate in activities to be held by the ministry, including training on the law and rights in the judicial process.

‘Volunteers must not expect money in return. However, under certain laws like the narcotics law, for example, those who give information that leads to arrests will get a reward. I want volunteers to come and work of their own free will. The other main duty is to protect and worship the monarchy,’ said the minister.

‘Volunteers work as spies [or agents] for the Justice Ministry. But the task must not be burdensome to their own work. Just live an ordinary life, and know that they can turn to the Justice Ministry when they come upon illegal acts,’ said Pirapan.

He believed that people were motivated to become ‘spies’ for the ministry because of their own grievances. The scheme starts in Bangkok, with the expectation of about 50,000 applicants, and will expand to the whole country.

This reads like a Thai version of the 'red guards' of the cultural revolution when Mao Zedong launched his campaign to purge his political opponents in the communist party. Volunteers were recruited, mostly youths, unoffficially assigned as red guards. Their priority were to report all the 'counter revolution' activities. They were unofficially but explicitly supported by Mao himself. The victims of the campaign turned out to be Mao's opponents and their cronies, who ended up imprisoned or sent to 'political reform' camps. Parents and teachers and city and village officials were targeted.

Maybe the Thai version is yellow guards, or blue guards. But it is a move that should alarm people in its thinking and potentially in its formation and potential abuse.

Asia risks a flu panic

25 May 2009

Traveling in Asia this week is enlightening.

The fashion accessory of choice is a face mask.

The airport accessory of choice is a thermal scanner.

In both Hong Kong and Bangkok there are forms to be completed; in Hong Kong these are presented to medical official at the airport who actually ask about the traveler's health. Not that anyone is likely to admit to a cough or cold for fear of being incarcerated.

In Bangkok the forms are handed to an immigration official who promptly puts them in a pile of papers that will probably never be looked at again.

On the airplanes and throughout the airports people wear masks. Cough and you are stared at. Sneeze and people walk away from you.

The danger is that this near hysteria over swine flu that has emerged in Asia will do nothing to stop the spread of the virus and could do serious damage to economies already reeling from the slowdown in world trade.

There is a serious danger of over reaction. Local officials in seeking to be seen to be doing the right thing are imposing controls and dispatching innocent travelers into quarantine on the flimsiest of pre-texts. Simply transiting a Mexican airport is enough to be sent to quarantine in China.

The Hong Kong government has used H1N1 as a diversion from both its own unpopularity and the looming June 4 anniversary. Hong Kong is demanding other countries, notably the US, with cases of the flu check all departing passengers. This is from a territory which was the chief focus of SARS; even during the SARS outbreak  Hong Kong never attempted to check those leaving and its citizens were never subject to random official restrictions when overseas.

Meanwhile the fear of being put in quarantine for simply having been on the same plane or bus as someone who developed the flu is beginning to be further disincentive to travel.

Similarly the body temperature tests at airports are a menace. Anyone with any type of fever (even a headache) is liable to be detained for as long as it takes to determine whether it is the swine flu. Meanwhile, those carrying the virus but as yet not suffering symptoms can move freely. So just how effective are the measures that airports have taken.

The airport forms require travelers report sneezes, shivers, coughs, aches and fevers. Yet the chances of these symptoms being H1N1 flu are remote.

The new flu obviously deserves careful watching and analysis to create vaccines and treatments; but there are flu outbreaks every year. This appears no worse than any other flu mutation.

Quarantine will have almost no impact on the flu's spread. And the economic threat of an already wary public stopping all travel is significant.

A PAD political party

25 May 2009

Thai politics is set to get even messier with the arrival of a well financed People's Alliance for Democracy political party established to push for their "new political order" in parliament. Their version of political order.

It is one year today since the yellow shirts started their demonstrations which lasted 193 days and were marked by the group's seizure of Government House and Bangkok's two airports.

The PAD argue that its new political order will "promote good people to run the country, prevent bad politicians from assuming power and guarantee justice for all." The process is expected to take three months.

Three names have been suggested for the party: Thien Haeng Tham (Candles of Dhamma), Panthamitprachathipatai (People's Alliance for Democracy) and Karn Muang Mai (New Politics).

PAD supporters will vote today for the preferred name.

The five PAD leaders were all at a meeting yesterday preparing for today's vote. They are Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang, Sondhi Limthongkul, Somsak Kosaisuk, Pibhop Dhongchai and Somkiat Pongpaiboon.

Mr Sondhi said the new political party, if formed, would be just one of PAD's tools to push for a better political system. He refused to answer when asked if he would lead the party.

The PAD seems to have fallen out with the Democrats that it put into power; Prasong Soonsiri, a former chairman of the committee drafting the constitution, said the new PAD party should be set up quickly because the public could no longer pin their hopes on existing parties to help solve their problems.

"Nothing has changed since the Democrats took the helm of the government four to five months ago," Sqn Ldr Prasong said and added "they are just buying time to stay in power."

Garbage from the Bangkok Post

25 May 2009

The Bangkok Post does have a bad habit of printing some complete garbage.

But it is especially sad when that garbage comes from Atiya Achakulwisut who is the editorial pages editor - that implies a role of some responsibility preferably held by someone with some integrity.

Khun Atiya in her opinion piece, read it here, things that the western media is being gentle with the Burmese junta while harshly critical of Thailand. She is either ignorant or deliberately misleading.

Atiya starts sensibly; I am happy she has joined the outcry to defend Aung San Suu Kyi.

She writes  "This is a democratically elected leader of a severely oppressed country whose people have long suffered under the heavy boots of the military junta. A leader who was not only robbed of her election victory but of her basic human rights for decades, who is now facing a real threat of being tried unfairly and put away in jail for five more years."

Then she loses the plot; or has never read a foreign newspaper or watched any of the international news broadcasts: she continues "Where is the outcry from the foreign media? Where are the articles and high-minded opinion pieces condemning the undemocratic elements? Where are the lectures and derision?"

Because she thinks that all that derision is aimed at Thailand. Well that does acknowledge one thing; we do expect higher democratic standards from Thailand.

But Atiya misses the hypocrisy of her argument. Thailand sits alongside China as Burma's biggest economic partner; the Thai military and politicians have been propping up the Burmese junta for decades with moral and business support.

Atiya then questions - "Has the bad press been reserved for struggling democracies like Thailand?..... No foreign press would nag that the Burmese prime minister was not elected, that its roadmap to democracy is a coup-produced sham." But she makes this argument without one article, one paper to support her argument.

She argues that the Economist is harsher on Thailand than on Burma with this example. "The Economist...has been harsh on Thailand to the point that its own integrity can be called into question. In its April issue, for example, the magazine took aim at Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's mandate to govern. "He rode to office, unelected, thanks to the yellow shirts," the magazine stated."

But that is exactly what happened; the Democrats came to power after the yellow shirts brought the country to a standstill and the courts removed the PPP government. The Thai media sll too easily sinks to a position that if you do not agree with us then you are attacking us.

As for the Economist on Burma - you can read their views here under the headline "The junta’s latest outrage and the debate over the West’s failed Myanmar policies."

Atiya fails to acknowledge that ASEAN (currently under Thai leadership - or lack of) has simply maintained its policy of non-intervention in member affairs? The West, on the other hand, has strict economic sanctions against Burma.

Change in Burma will need to be encouraged by its trading neighbours, Thailand, India and China. Western sanctions have limited economic impact. Irrawaddy.org states “China makes no secret of its strong ties with Burma. New Delhi, on the other hand, is a pathetic hypocrite, changing its policy from support for Suu Kyi to one of subservience to Burma’s ruling generals. …It’s sad indeed to see one of the world’s largest democracies, whose commitment to democracy has just been proved in a general election, kowtowing to the bullies.”

Now we get to the heart of her article -she moans "It is quite puzzling how the world press is ready to heap scorn and pressure on a half-baked democracy like Thailand's and refrain from applying the same kind of heat to a fully-fledged dictatorship like Burma's. Maybe they think it is an exercise in futility because the Burmese generals won't care. But that would then be an act of hypocrisy."

Oh dear. Is she utterly misinformed, utterly ignorant or deliberately lieing. The foreign media (outside of China) despise the Burmese junta and are strongly critical: Criticism is consistent across nations; a simple google search with give you countless examples; not just recently but over the years.

BangkokPundit in his blog helps out with this short list of foreign coverage; "Free Aung San Suu Kyi" Khaleej Times; "Free Aung San Suu Kyi" LA Times; "Myanmar’s Cowardly Generals" NYT; the Washington Post had an editorial just over a week ago entitled "Engage With Burma?"; an editorial in USA Today entitled "Show trial in Burma"; Boston Globe editorial from April entitled "Burma needs Obama's help"; "Odd intrusion gives Burma's junta potent weapon" SF Chronicle. There are probably plenty more including this op-ed in the WSJ and op-ed in the NY Post. Not a single one has anything positive to say about the Burmese junta.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Wednesday has already condemned the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi as outrageous, and said its treatment of the democracy leader will render the country's planned elections next year illegitimate. Mind you they already were likely to be illegitimate!

Atiya says that "the Burmese people can't afford any more hypocrisy from a world that preaches democracy and human rights protection." Stange - because I see a consistent contempt of the Burmese military from everywhere except ASEAN and Burma's neighbours. I also see a world that is working out how best to support change in Burma. Maybe this is too subtle for Atiya. The Economist and others are calling for a rethink of the strategy of western policy towards Burma.  As the Washington Post points out - Sanctions imposed on Burma by the United States and Europe have proved ineffectual in deflecting the Burmese generals from their course, largely because the country's neighbors -- China, Thailand and India -- have continued to increase their trade with the regime. So then the rest of the world needs to determine what policies to implement to effect change and to silence the Burmese junta.

Her argument is that the foreign media picks on Thailand not on Burma and how unfair that is.

I am not sure who she thought she was writing this for. But it is laughable nonsense.

Burma's foot in mouth consul

23 May 2009

Burma’s Consul-General in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, who added heat to the Royingya debate by calling Burma’s Muslim minority “ugly as ogres,” has now waded into the controversy over the Aung San Suu Kyi trial—suggesting that the American who swam to her lakeside home could have been her “boyfriend.”

Myanmar's consul general in Hong Kong has posted a letter on the Internet suggesting the American man arrested for visiting democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was a "secret agent or her boyfriend."

This was reported today by the South China Morning Post.

"Some of our friends inquired about an American, who swam into the Inya Lake, who secretly visited Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's house," said the letter seen Friday on the consulate's website.

"Their question is why he swam to her and what they discussed within his stay at her house," said the letter signed by "the Consulate General of the Union of Myanmar."

"Frankly, we have no idea whether he is either secret agent or her boyfriend at this moment. We shall try to learn it and tell you later," it said.

For emphasis, the words "either secret agent or her boyfriend" were in bold and underlined.

The posting refers to the bizarre incident in which a 53-year-old American, John Yettaw, used a pair of homemade flippers to swim across a lake to Aung San Suu Kyi's house, where he allegedly stayed between 3 May and 5 May.

The intrusion of Yettaw, who was arrested as he swam back to shore, led to the 63-year-old opposition leader being charged with violating the conditions of her house arrest. Both are on trial this week.

The incident may have provided Myanmar's ruling junta with a pretext for extending her detention order — which was due to expire on 27 May — beyond polls due in 2010.

The letter was described by the South China Morning Post Friday "as another gaffe" by the "most undiplomatic diplomat in Hong Kong".

Ye Myint Aung sparked a controversy in February, during concerns over Myanmar's apparent expulsion of members of its Rohingya minority, when he wrote that they were as "ugly as ogres".

The letter was sent to the media and foreign officials after Thailand's military was accused of towing hundreds of Rohingya out to sea in poorly equipped boats with scant food and water after they tried to flee Myanmar.

"In reality, Rohingya are neither Myanmar people nor Myanmar's ethnic group," his letter said.

He contrasted the "dark brown" Rohingya complexion with the "fair and soft" skin of people from Myanmar such as himself.

Smith and Thaksin

22 May 2009

The question in this story is what does the arrest of Mr. Smith mean for Mr. Thaksin. The Thai authorities must expect something in return after a British man was arrested in Bangkok after spending eight months on the run for allegedly embezzling $150m from a real estate company in Dubai.

Michael Bryan Smith, 43, was caught by Thai Police in Bangkok's notorious Nana area on Wednesday night after the UAE had asked for Thailand’s assistance in the matter.

With US$150 million to spend why was he in Nana Plaza!?

The allegations say Smith siphoned workers' salaries into his own bank account while working as a personnel manager at a Dubai property company. Smith has apparently denied all charges and his case will be handed to the Attorney General's Office for extradition to face charges in the UAE.

There has not been an extradition treaty between the UAE and Thailand. But the Thai police said "we will start his extradition process as soon as possible,"  according to Police Colonel Somprasong Yen-tuam.

Smith is married to a Thai woman, and had travelled extensively through Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand after fleeing Dubai.

Meanwhile Thai police believe fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is still residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and are coordinating with the Attorney-General to extradite him.

Pol Maj-Gen Visanu Prasartthongosot, the Commander of the Foreign Affairs Division under the Royal Thai Police, said on Thursday that there was no evidence that Thaksin left the UAE.

But if Thaksin actually departed to other country, it could be possible that he might be using a different name for travelling, Pol Maj-Gen Visanu indicated.

The police move came after Pheu Thai Party MP Chalerm Yoobamrung admitted he had been to Dubai recently to visit Thaksin for three days.id.

Visanu said he had submitted a request to the Attorney General's Foreign Affairs office to seek the extradition of Thaksin, even though Thailand does not have an extradition treaty with the UAE. "We can ask for cooperation from the UAE since we had earlier helped them arrest and dispatch suspects wanted by them."

And there is the link !

After the court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin, police stepped up pressure on him by asking Interpol police in 187 countries to help find and arrest him, he said. Thai police had been dispatched to countries Thaksin was believed to visit frequently such as Hong Kong, Nicaragua, Montenegro, Cambodia and the UAE.

Chalerm said he did not discuss politics or who would be the new party leader with Thaksin, but they talked about his well-being and his business. Thaksin told him he had bought an island in Montenegro to develop a real estate business, hoping to make billions of baht in profit by selling expensive mansions to Asian millionaires, following the success of Hawaii.

"Thaksin is living a good life in Dubai because the country highly honours him and has given him top security. The reports that said Thaksin is not welcome there are wrong. Dubai approved a visa for me 24 hours after I applied. Thaksin took me out shopping in malls and many people came to ask for his autograph and his picture,'' he said.

Thaksin also won five goldmine concessions from a country in Africa, which had given him a special passport.

Responding to Chalerm's revelation of his visit to Thaksin in Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said he had not made any progress getting Thaksin back because he had more important work to do, such as combating drugs and violence in the South. Excuses!

Emirates crew jailed for bomb hoax

22 May 2009

An Australian flight attendant working for Emirates Airline has been jailed after creating a bomb hoax on his flight.

Matthew Carney, 23, hid a message in the plane's lavatory which read: "Explosive material can be found in the FWD (forward cargo department). We have the Taliban to thank for this."

A passenger found the apparent threat on board Emirates Flight EK011 from Dubai and immediately warned the plane's cabin crew.

The Boeing 777's 160 passengers were left terrified after the captain warned them of the threat, and the aircraft later landed at Gatwick Airport where it was surrounded by armed police.

The court was told that some of the passengers had been left with a fear of flying due to the bomb scare on March 22.

In an operation costing £42,000, the airport was closed to incoming air traffic for more than an hour, and fire and ambulance crews rushed to the scene.

Carney, from Melbourne, Australia, who was an air steward on the flight, was arrested and had his luggage searched.

Officers found another note inside a pair of his shorts stating "Cargo contains explosives".

Both notes matched his handwriting.

The court was told that earlier in the flight Carney told his co-workers he had "found" wires hanging down from behind a mirror in a toilet in the economy section, the Press Association reported.

But senior cabin crew members who inspected the area found the wires were not attached to anything and the plane carried on to Britain.

Prosecutor Dale Sullivan said that because of the earlier incident, Carney was arrested and his luggage searched.

Inside a pair of his shorts was found a piece of paper with the words "Cargo contains explosives", which handwriting experts linked to the note left in the toilet.

His lawyer Andel Singh said Carney had been under a great deal of stress and was "extremely tired" at the time having worked on flights on different time schedules throughout the world.

"He apologises wholeheartedly and sincerely to all those individuals who were even the slightest bit inconvenienced," Singh said.

Carney later admitted leaving the hoax threat, but denied a second charge of endangering the safety of an aircraft, which will lie on file.

Sentencing at Lewes Crown Court, Judge Richard Brown told Carney: "What you did was a gross breach of trust of your employer, to your passengers, fellow cabin crew members and the emergency services."

Outside court, an Emirates spokesman said: "Emirates can confirm that Matthew Carney was suspended from duty following his arrest, pending the outcome of today's court case.

"This was a serious incident and our disciplinary procedures will now be concluded. Clearly there is no place for these irresponsible actions in any airline."

He has been treated fairly leniently. He could have got 4 years, and with good behaviour he will serve a year and be out and back to Australia. He will not be returning to Dubai. I suspect he has been fortunate. There have been rumours of other incidents on his flights.

Emirates Group profit drops 72%

21 May 2009

Dubai's Emirates airline, the largest Arab carrier, posted a 72 percent year-on-year fall in net profit for the year ended March 2009 reflecting a slump in demand during the global downturn, which it said has yet to improve.

However, Emirates said it would continue with a planned expansion of its fleet, having secured funding commitments for over half the aircraft due to be delivered in 2009.

"No one could have predicted the scale of the worldwide recession which is now impacting every country on earth," said Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum in a statement.

Net profit in the 2008/09 financial year declined to 1.49 billion dirhams ($405.8 million) from 5.3 billion dirhams in the previous year, the statement said. Group revenues grew 10.4 percent to 46.3 billion dirhams.

The Group had set a profit target of 5 billion dirhams for 2008/9. Falling well short of that target the airline has announced no salary increase and no bonus will be paid.

Emirates, the largest customer for the Airbus A380, with 58 aircraft orders, expects to receive 18 planes from Boeing and Airbus in this financial year.

The prospects for the new financial year were not getting any better although he expected "satisfactory growth" for the group, Sheikh Ahmed said.

The good news is that fuel prices have dropped. The bad news is that demand for the premium cabins is still weak in many markets.

The group, which employs about 45,000 people, earlier this year offered cabin crew the option to take unpaid leave to help cut costs.

As the financial downturn hit Dubai, speculation mounted that Emirates could either be merged with Etihad or bought by Abu Dhabi. Emirates has repeatedly denied such rumours. In the long term this writer thinks this is almost inevitable. But it will not happen until the new airport at Jebel Ali is completed after 2020.
 

Was Northern Exposure the best TV drama of the last 20 years?

21 May 2009

"Northern Exposure" began inauspiciously as a CBS replacement series in the summer of 1990 and quickly garnered critical acclaim as well as an audience sufficient to warrant its return for a short stint the following year. Its popularity grew, and for its first complete season, 1991-92, NE received ratings in the top twenty, the Emmy for Best Television Drama, and an unusual, two-year commitment from the network.

For me it was compulsory weekly viewing.

Then after I left Canada and the show entered its fourth full year, 1994-95, the show started to lose its way. The mid-season departure of one of its key players, Rob Morrow, and a move from its established, Monday night time slot to Wednesday, contributed to a decline in ratings and reputation.

The program was canceled by the network at the end of the season.

NE was set in the fictional hamlet of Cicely.

Location shooting in and around the towns of Roslyn and Redmond, Washington offered scenic panoramas invoking cultural images of unspoiled American frontier. Into this quiet retreat comes the proverbial "fish out of water," Joel Fleischman (Morrow), compelled to serve as town doctor in order to repay the state of Alaska for his medical school tuition.

 His initial disdain for Cicely's outwardly unsophisticated inhabitants is exceeded only by his desire to return to his beloved Big Apple.

The frontier theme was reflected in many of the town's multi-cultural, multi-generational denizens.

Former astronaut and wealthy entrepreneur Maurice Minnifield (Barry Corbin) is forever devising ways to exploit Cicely's natural wonders. No-nonsense septuagenarian Ruth-Anne Miller (Peg Phillips) operates Cicely's General Store, where Native American Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows) helps out while aspiring to be a filmmaker and, eventually, a shaman.

 Broadway star John Cullum plays French-Canadian immigrant Holling Vincoeur, who owns and manages Cicely's only bar, The Brick. He is assisted by girlfriend-turned-wife Shelly Tambo (Cynthia Geary), an ex-beauty queen some forty years his junior.

Joel's receptionist, Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles) guides Fleischman on Native American customs and spirituality while keeping him in line with the slightest grimace or glare.

Chris Stevens (John Corbett), ex-con and deejay for Cicely's KBHR "Kaybear" radio, peppers the narrative with eclectic musical selections, self-taught philosophy, and Greek chorus-like commentary.

Then there was Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner), single, attractive, she was both the local bush pilot and Joel's landlady. Her never to be romance with Fleischman was a continuing theme of the show.

It is around intermittent characters that some of Exposure's most ground-breaking episodes and themes have emerged. Chris's African-American half-brother Bernard (Richard Cummings, Jr.) and Marilyn's healer cousin Leonard Quinhagak, played by noted film actor Graham Greene (Dances With Wolves), enhanced the show's representation of multi-culture.

Gender and sexuality were explored through Ron (Doug Ballard) and Erick (Don R. McManus), proprietors of a local inn, whose gay wedding was a prime-time first. Ron and Erick's arrival also helped to provide a larger context within which to recollect the town's founding by a lesbian couple, Roslyn and Cicely, later featured in a flashback episode.

Then there was an eccentric bush couple Adam (Adam Arkin) and Eve (Valerie Mahaffey) with their exaggerated, back-to-nature facade and conspicuously consumptive habits.

Of course Joel gradually  softens toward Cicely, Cicelians, and small-town life.

Humanity's place within the larger natural environment is another significant thematic thread running through the program's extended text. Behavior and temperament are often seen to be influenced by phenomena such as seasonal winds, Northern Lights, midnight sun, and ice breaking in springtime. The lesson is clear: nature tames human beings even New York doctors - not the other way around.

Fifteen years on, repeats of the show are still on US television. Its message, its optimism and its hope are as relevant now as they were before the millennium.
 

UAE says "no" to monetary union

20 May 2009

This is potentially a major financial story from the Middle East.

The UAE has said that it will not join the GCC Monetary Union Agreement according to the Foreign Ministry and has passed this decision onto the GCC General Secretariat. decision earlier on Wednesday.

Central Bank Governor Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi said the UAE’s monetary policy will not change and will maintain its method of openness, adding that the UAE dirham will remain pegged to the US dollar.

The UAE was the first country to submit an application to host the GCC Central Bank in 2004, as part of the arrangements to join the proposed GCC monetary union. But in a recent announcement Saudi Arabia was appointed to host the new Central GCC Bank.

What does this mean; well the GCC monetary union is "dead."

The UAE's move came just three weeks and is widely seen as a reaction to the decision to base the bloc's central bank in Riyadh.

The UAE is the second largest GCC economy behind the KSA. Oman had already declared that it would not participate in monetary union. This leaves the KSA, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

There were always questions on whether the proposed GCC single currency would proceed. It has been delayed on a number of occasions and the proposed 2010 launch date was unlikely to be achieved.

The GCC secretariat is already based in Saudi Arabia. The decision to host the GCC central bank in Saudi Arabia as well may have been seen as concentrating too much authority in that country.

While the UAE’s withdrawal has limited impact on short term regional economic performance it does send a message about the overall commitment to regional unity and suggests that their remains some discord between the GCC nations.

Defying even Thai logic

20 May 2009

While the Thai authorities relentlessly pursue Thaksin and have laid charges against the red shirts for the Songkran riots and the occupation of government house the Nation newspaper reported yesterday that:

"The Criminal Court dismissed the case against the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) for besieging Government House last year, saying that since the group had already moved out of the compound there was no need to continue the case any more."

Now isn't that interesting. Presumably the same will apply to their occupation of the airport. As the yellow shirts are no longer at the airport there is no need to pursue criminal charges.

Take this further to any crime - you cannot be prosecuted if you have already left the scene of the crime. Amazing Thailand.

Big congress win should be good for India

19 May 2009

Rejoice! Democracy does work; people do take pride in their vote. In Thailand they are trying to take the vote away from the poor because the ruling classes argue that the poor are not educated enough to vote responsibly.

In Burma the ruling junta is paralysed by fear of allowing basic rights to the nation's people.

In China we are able to commemorate 20 years since the bloody crackdown on that nation's democratic movement.

But in India it works. A nation of 712 million voters sees a nation growing from slumdog to powerhouse. The Indian voters want economic growth and stronger antipoverty programs (some 40 percent of Indians still live on less than US$1.25 a day.)

India emerged this weekend from months of campaigning and a drawn out election process with a surprisingly clear mandate for the ruling Congress party and its coalition partners. Parties and their coalition allies need to win 272 out of 543 seats to form a majority government. Congress has 206 seat; the BJP 116 and the most held by any other party is 23. The Congress led United Progressive Alliance is strong. A seven seat gap at the 2004 election is now a ninety seat gap between the two main parties.

The expectation was a closer contest; no clear winner and a weak coalition.

But the reality was a landslide victory for the center-left Congress party. The business establishment celebrated with a 17 percent surge on India's stock market within hours of opening Monday, triggering an automatic shutdown for the rest of the day.

It was a victory for a rather strange combination of a charismatic political dynasty (Gandhi) and  a soft-spoken technocratic prime minister (Singh).

It was also a call for consistency and stability in a country unused to either. Particularly with an embattled Pakistan on the border.

The victory was led by Sonia Gandhi, a 62-year-old Italian-born widow who has divided opinion across India, her urbane 38-year-old son Rahul (probably the next prime minister)  and the current prime minister who is 76 and not known for being inspirational!

But between them they appeal to the young vote; the old vote; the female vote.

Sonia Gandhi declined the chance to be prime minister after Congress' last national victory, in 2004. Instead, she hand-picked Manmohan Singh, a respected, mild-mannered economist, to take the country's top position. In the five years since then, Gandhi has overseen party politics while Singh was in charge of governance.

And in five years the Indian people have come to trust Singh and he is respected internationally.

Sonia's son, Rahul emerged as a major force in the Congress party ahead of the 2009 vote. Rahul has a degree from Cambridge University, has friends in the IT and finance worlds and works hard for the rural poor.

He traveled relentlessly in the months before the election and mobilised the rural vote. The BJP missed out. He is a celebrity in a land that loves celebrities.

The BJP looked old and tired with an old leader L.K. Advani. The party is openly pro Hindu and nationalistic. They backed candidates who openly disparaged the country's many Muslims and other minorities. Attacking Singh as weak did not work.

The new Congress led government has a five year mandate to lead India into the changing geopolitical landscape that is seeing the relative decline of the west and a growing influence from the Middle east and Asia.

The new government will need to continue its efforts to make development work for the poor within India; and couple this with long-term strategic and geopolitical thinking. Bureaucracy needs to be removed. Corruption dealt with. Infrastructure improved. Investment encouraged.

In the next 2 to 3 years I can see prime minister Singh retiring to pave the way for Rahul Gandhi to step up as prime minister and to lead the party into the next election. The dynasty continues.

Maradona shows his hand

18 May 2009

He is described in the local press as a "soccer legend". But Diego Maradona is of course a lying, cheating, never-to-be-forgiven disgrace. He is now set to open the world’s first “Maradona Sports Cafe” in Dubai within the next year.

Guess I wont be going there.

The café is modelled on the Planet Hollywood concept and will feature memorabilia from the Argentinean footballer’s career; presumably a healthy collection of alcohol, steroids and tedious denial. The cafe mayl also include items from other soccer stars such as Brazilian heroes Pele, Zico and Dunga.

It will be developed by UAE property tycoon Sulaiman Al Fahim, architect of last year’s Manchester City takeover from another man of good repute, Thaksin Shinawatra!

The cafe will have screens showing World Cup goals; if they want any English guests maybe they should probably not show this 1986 World Cup goal. The Scottish love him though.

Scary what a little cocaine, some steroids and a bad diet can do:

EK passenger has swine flu

18 May 2009

An Indian passenger who flew from New York to Hyderabad last week via Dubai has been tested positive for (H1N1) swine flu in Hyderabad. He had not declared any health issue and cleared the thermal scanner check at Dubai International Airport, Emirates airline said on Sunday.

Indian authorities on Saturday had declared that the 23-year-old man was the first confirmed case of swine flu (influenza A (H1N1)) in the country.

Reports from India said the student of Indiana University, Bloomington, had reached Hyderabad in the early hours of Wednesday from New York via Dubai in an Emirates Flights (EK202 and 524).

Emirates is now assisting the authorities in their efforts to contact all passengers who were seated close to the person. The Emirates crew serving in the same cabin section have been advised to contact the Emirates Clinic if they experience flu symptoms.

Of course the passenger will also have spent about two hours in transit at the airport and come into contact with people from security to duty free to cleaners. But short of quarantining everyone who was on duty that night there is little that can be done.

I wonder what the HKG authorities would have done.

Media freedom dieing in Thailand

17 May 2009

There has been remarkable little outcry against proposed new legislation in Thailand that appoints the government, through the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) as the censor of any television and radio program. The proposed regulations will require community radio stations, and cable TV and satellite TV channels to seek permission for each programme being aired. 'Once the regulations take effect, any broadcast station airing content deemed to be politically incendiary would lose its operating license.

The final legislation is expected in June.

The NTC was charged by the 1997 Constitution to return the public airwaves to the public. Now, the commission proposes to place a whole new set of public broadcasters under its control, including monitoring and censoring the broadcasts themselves.

The regulations are only a proposal by the NTC. However the Democratic (not that they were voted into office) government appears to be driving these new measures. parliamentary discussion.

The country has the word of PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey that the NTC would never overstep its responsibility, and only would take action if broadcasters used "politically incendiary" statements. But who decides what is and is not acceptable.

The NTC has asked the government for permission to start monitoring right away. Mr Sathit said he was certain the NTC would be even-handed in its treatment of both the ASTV satellite broadcasts by the yellow-shirt supporters, and DStation backed by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and the red shirts. If either or both were judged to have incendiary content, they would be taken off the air. The same would hold true for all community radio stations.

These proposed regulations are onerous and will be opposed by all advocates of free speech and a free press. They are nothing less than political pressure on new broadcast media to exert fearful self-censorship.

According to the government, they require every such "new media" broadcaster to get prior permission from the regulators before they begin any programme. This is not only intimidation of the worst sort, it is clearly impractical.

Under these regulations, any media under NTC control would have to wait for permission to comment on current events - in other words, neither news nor comment on the news would even be legal.

The NTC should withdraw these poorly thought-out proposals. That is unlikely in the current political climate.

How for instance would UK style revelations of abusive MP expenses be treated. Presumably the NTC would require pre-approval of such news and would be able to ensure that the details were not broadcast.

This is little more than a heavy handed government attempt at widespread censorship of the media.

The Prime Minister's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey said the regulations would allow the NTC to take action against community radio and satellite TV stations which air content deemed to undermine democracy.

This is a massive step back, not forward for democracy.

36 Hours in Toronto

The New York Times - 16 May 2009

"As one of the planet’s most diverse cities, Toronto is oddly clean and orderly. Sidewalks are spotless, trolleys run like clockwork, and the locals are polite almost to a fault. That’s not to say that Torontonians are dull. Far from it. With a population that is now half foreign-born — fueled by growing numbers of East Indians, Chinese and Sri Lankans — the lakeside city offers a kaleidoscope of world cultures. Sing karaoke in a Vietnamese bar, sip espresso in Little Italy and catch a new Bollywood release, all in one night. The art and design scenes are thriving, too, and not just on the bedazzled red carpets of the Toronto International Film Festival, held every September. Industrial zones have been reborn into gallery districts, and dark alleys now lead to designer studios, giving Canada’s financial capital an almost disheveled mien.

Friday 4 p.m. 1) WEST ENDERS

Toronto’s cool scene seems to migrate west along Queen Street West every few years. It started out at Yonge Street, with punk rockers and art students pouring into sweaty clubs. Then, when mainstream stores like the Gap moved in, the scenesters fled west, past Bathurst Street, to a district now called West Queen West (www.westqueenwest.ca), where old appliance stores are still being carved into rough-hewn galleries and hunter-chic boutiques. Start your stroll along Toronto’s art mile at Bathurst Street and go west. Raw spaces that showcase young Canadian artists include Paul Petro Contemporary Art (980 Queen Street West; 416-979-7874; www.paulpetro.com).

8 p.m. 2) DESIGNER MEAT

For a taste of hipsterdom, put on a T-shirt and squeeze into OddFellows (936 Queen Street West, 416-534-5244, www.oddfellows.ca), a boutique-like bistro where the area’s beard-and-flannel posse gathers nightly. The corner restaurant, which opened last fall, is run by Brian Richer and Kei Ng, partners in a maverick design firm, Castor Design (www.castordesign.ca), known for elevating mundane materials into clever objects. The menu follows similar sleights of hand. Manly cuts are skillfully turned into Canadian comfort dishes like bison meatloaf and venison burgers (both 18 Canadian dollars, or about $15 at 1.21 Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar). The long communal table, made of polished limestone and random legs, encourages chitchat.

10:30 p.m. 3) TREND NORTH

Let the frat boys have College Street. And West Queen West has been overrun lately with 905ers, slang for out-of-towners with suburban area codes. The cool kids, it seems, are now migrating north along Ossington Avenue, which some Toronto bloggers are already calling “Next West Queen West.” Bookending the district are Sweaty Betty’s (13 Ossington Avenue; 416-535-6861), a hole-in-the-wall with a brash jukebox, and Communist’s Daughter (1149 Dundas Street West; 647-435-0103), an understated lounge that attracts the skinny corduroy and high-top-wearing set. A trendy bar crawl is emerging in between, tucked among old Portuguese bakeries and kitchen supply stores.

Saturday 10:30 a.m. 4) EGGS AND EGG CHAIRS

Brunch is serious business in this town, and discerning eaters are making their way these days to Leslieville, a once grimy neighborhood in East Toronto now packed with smart-looking cafes and midcentury-modern stores. Still buzzing is Table 17 (782 Queen Street East; 416-519-1851; www.table17.ca), a country-style French bistro that serves lovely Neapolitan eggs (11 dollars). Afterward, peruse the neighborhood’s amazingly well-priced and well-curated antiques shops like Machine Age Modern (1000 Queen Street East; 416-461-3588; www.machineagemodern.com), which carries teak dining tables, Georg Jensen clocks and other vintage modern treasures.

2 p.m. 5) O CALCUTTA

This is a city of minority neighborhoods, from the souvlaki joints in Greektown to the rainbow-hued windows of Gay Village. There are even two Chinatowns. But for color and spice, hop a taxi to Little India. The hilltop district spans just six blocks along Gerrard Street East, but it’s jammed with more than a hundred stores and restaurants. Sparkly silks are piled high at Chandan Fashion (No. 1439; 416-462-0277; www.chandanfashion.ca). Dubai Jewellers (No. 1407; 416-465-1200) has a dazzling assortment of Indian-designed gold pieces. And for a midday snack, Udupi Palace (No. 1460; 416-405-8189; www.udupipalace.ca) is a bright restaurant that makes delicious dosas, chaats and other South Indian treats.

4 p.m. 6) MADE IN CANADA

Local fashion is disappointing, even in West Queen West. A handsome exception is Klaxon Howl (recently relocated to the rear entrance of 694 Queen Street West; 647-436-6628; www.klaxonhowl.com), a homegrown men’s label that blends vintage military gear with its own rugged work shirts, selvage denim jeans and waxed cotton jackets. The design scene, on the other hand, is flourishing. Commute Home (819 Queen Street West; 416-861-0521; www.commutehome.com) is a cavernous showroom that mixes industrial objects with neomodern furniture crafted from solid woods. For clever housewares, take a slight detour to Made (867 Dundas Street West; 416-607-6384; www.madedesign.ca), a gallery store that represents young product designers with a fresh and playful eye.

8 p.m. 7) NOMADIC TASTES

A new culinary confidence has taken hold of Toronto. Not only are kitchens updating traditional Canadian fare like charcuterie and wild boar, but young chefs are tapping Toronto’s global roots in ways that transcend standard fusion. Asian-fusion chefs like Susar Lee have gotten much of the attention; his latest restaurant Madeline’s (601 King Street West; 416-603-2205; www.susur.com) is packed. But also making a mark are hot spots like Nyood (1096 Queen Street West; 416-466-1888; www.nyood.ca), a pan-Mediterranean restaurant with big chandeliers and frilly molding. Dishes like the Malta braised short ribs (14 dollars) are a hit, while tasty cocktails like the berry mojito (14 dollars) keep the party going.

11 p.m. 8) GET WIGGY

O.K., College Street is not all bad, especially if you’re single and in your mid-20s to 30s. A chill place to start is the unimaginatively named College Street Bar (No. 574; 416-533-2417; www.collegestreetbar.com). The dim space has brick walls, a woodsy patio and a refreshing microbrew that draws a good-looking crowd of Web designers and writer types. Afterward, catch the 1 a.m. drag show at El Convento Rico (No. 750; 416-588-7800; www.elconventorico.com). The low-rent, high-octane club still attracts an exuberant mix of bachelorettes in plastic tiaras and muscular men with high voices.

Sunday 11 a.m. 9) DIM SUM LUXE

For inventive dim sum you won’t find anywhere else, make a beeline for Lai Wah Heen (118 Chestnut Street; 416-977-9899; www.laiwahheen.com), a white tablecloth restaurant on the second floor of the Metropolitan Hotel. The Hong Kong chef Terence Chan serves fanciful creations like crab dumplings that resemble purple crabs and tofu paired with truffles and mushroom. About 40 dollars a person.

1 p.m. 10) TROPHY MUSEUM

The CN Tower notwithstanding, Toronto has impressive architecture by giants like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Santiago Calatrava and Thom Mayne. But work by its favorite son, Frank Gehry, was missing until November when the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West; 416-979-6648; www.ago.net) reopened with a bold renovation by Mr. Gehry, who grew up just blocks from the 109-year-old museum. He wrapped the original Beaux-Arts structure in sheets of billowing glass and swaths of Douglas fir, and added a spiraling wood staircase that pierces the glass roof to a new contemporary-art wing. It’s a stunning homecoming for an architect credited with helping other cities flourish, not that Toronto needs a hand.

THE BASICS

Porter Airlines flies nonstop from Newark to Toronto City Center Airport for as low as $50 one way, excluding taxes and fees. Large carriers, including Air Canada, American and Continental, fly nonstop between New York City and Toronto’s main airport, starting at about $220 for travel in May, according to a recent Web search. Taxis are plentiful, and the city has an efficient network of streetcars, subways and buses.

The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West; 416-531-5042; www.thedrakehotel.ca) helped put West Queen West on the hipster map. Weekends can be a zoo, but the 19 guest rooms, which evoke a midcentury modern yacht with their wooden ladders and flip-down nightstands, are cozy and quiet. Service is warm and attentive, even when the main entrance is mobbed. The cafe and restaurant are also worth a visit. Rooms start at 189 Canadian dollars, about $156 at 1.21 Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar.

Housed in a Victorian landmark, the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West; 416-531-4635; www. gladstonehotel.com) reopened in 2005 as a modern boutique hotel at the edge of West Queen West. The wood-paneled bar and galleries are also a popular hangout for the local arts and gay scene. It has 37 artist-designed rooms starting at 185 Canadian dollars."

There’s a new awakening in Thai society

By PHILIP GOLINGAI - The Star, Malasia - 17 May 2009


Politically turbulent Thailand is undergoing a grand transition, its people seeking a new and workable equilibrium.

THITINAN Pongsudhirak, a Thai political lecturer, believes space for intellectual honesty is tightening in Thailand.

This tightening space, which Thitinan likened to a box, has a ceiling – lese majeste (insulting the monarchy). From the bottom pushing up there’s an “effective longstanding official indoctrination”.

And on the sides compressing the box are the military, the Democrat-led coalition government, and the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD, better known as the Yellow Shirts).

“This space is shrinking,” said Thitinan, an associate professor of international political economy at Bangkok’s prestigious Chulalong- korn University.

In the past three years the space for misbehaviour (seizure of airports and prime minister’s office in Bangkok and scuttling of the Asean Summit in Pattaya) has expanded and the space for proper behaviour has tightened.

“I operate within this space. So no fireworks tonight,” he said, before speaking on Political reform in Thailand at the Foreign Corres- pondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) in Bangkok on Wednesday night. The audience comprised mainly foreign journalists and diplomats.

To ensure that there were “no fireworks” that night at the FCCT. which he described as “a bit of a pit for controversy and trouble” (in reference to a lese majeste case filed against Jakrapob Penkair, a Thaksin Shinawatra loyalist, for comments made in an FCCT event in 2007), Thitinan’s wife and friends showed up to make sure he behaved.

What we are seeing in politically turbulent Thailand, according to Thitinan, is a grand transition – a quest for a new and workable equilibrium in Thai society.

“Certainly everyone accepts that this is not a normal time,” the director of the Institute of Security and International Studies, Thailand’s leading think tank on foreign affairs, said.

“The Prime Minister (Abhisit Vejjajiva) said this is not a normal time. He wants normalcy. Everyone wants normalcy.

“When was the last time normalcy existed in Thailand?”

Answering his own question, he noted that the last time normalcy in Thailand flourished and prevailed was in the 1990s

“(During that period) you can more or less know what to expect,” he said.

“Things were also topsy-turvy but there were certain perimeters, a certain understanding and certain consensus among the Thai elite (monarchy, military and bureaucracy) on how things work and who called the shots. And underneath that there was some manoeuvring room.”

The elite consensus provided Thailand with a long period of political stability (despite various coups). “And this explain why the Thai economy was so successful,” he added.

The elite consensus has now broken down. And Thitinan often asks himself “why has it broken down, and why now”.

“It was bound to break down,” he said. “And my view is that the long boom we had from the late 1980s – except for the 1997-98 contraction – saw economic growth concentrated mainly in Bangkok, resulting in disparity.

“The elite consensus was shaken up because the disparity exacerbated over two decades from the late 1980s. And along came Thaksin, a consummate politician, who exploited this disparity with his patronising, corrupt, populist platform.

“Thaksin never had any intention to promote equality and reduce disparity, it was a means to an end.”

But the unintended consequence of Thaksin’s rule from 2001 to 2006 awakened many strata in Thai society.

Thitinan likened the Thais’ political awakening to a westerner’s first taste of sticky rice and mango. “If you never had it, you would never miss it. But once you’ve had it, you might want another bite,” he said.

“There is a new stratification of people who may want different things and who have different expectations and demands.

“This changed the face of Thai politics, and since then we just have prolonged turbulence.”

The 2006 coup to overthrown Thaksin, the only Thai prime minister to serve a full term, was an attempt to restore the previous elite consensus.

“Suffice to say the coup did not work or has not worked. They (the elite) are still trying, and they may or may not succeed in the end,” Thitinan said.

There seems to be no end in sight for the Thai political crisis, Thitinan conceded.

Looks like the boxed-in political lecturer has to continue to operate in an environment where “fireworks” comments can be deemed dangerous.

 

Arriving on Sunday

16 May 2009

ETA in Dubai - 21.00 on Sunday 17th. Registration is A6-FDA. Flying from  Seattle via Glasgow to Dubai.

Abhisit urges Thaksin to return home

15 May 2009

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday called on ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return home to face corruption charges, but ruled out the possibility of granting him amnesty.

Why does Abhisit want Thaksin back in Thailand? His return can only cause more trouble, protests and divisions.

Abhisit, who visited Hong Kong after months of anti-government protests by Thaksin's supporters in Thailand, said he should face the consequences.

"He can expect justice from Thailand. He must accept the consequence of his actions,'' Abhisit said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) in Hong Kong, the same venue Thaksin was due to speak at in early March.

The premier said his government would consider granting amnesty to members of the opposition parties as part of the reconciliation process to restore order for his country, but stressed that Thaksin would not be among them.

"We are talking about amnesty for what would be political violations. We are not interested in granting amnesty for criminal offences,'' he said.

"(Thaksin)'s been convicted. He's violated the law. He must accept responsibilities.''
 

Thaksin's denial while police seek translators

15 May 2009

Former premier Thaksin Shinawatra issued a statement declaring his innocence on Friday after police announced they have enough evidence to convict him of lese majeste.

The statement was released through his former legal adviser Noppadon Pattama.

"The accusation is very serious and contradicts what actually happened," he said in the statement.

On Thursday, police said they would charge Thaksin with lese majeste for demanding His Majesty the King's intervene to stop the political riots in comments made to foreign media last month.

In his interviews with British-based Sky News and the Financial Times on April 12 and 13, Thaksin demanded His Majesty intervene in the political unrest in Thailand or people would be killed.

However, and this is bizarre, the Central Investigation Bureau chief confirmed today that although the police decided that Thaksin had allegedly made lese majesty statement in his recent interview with a foreign website the police still needed to obtain a translation.

Thangai said the interview will be translated into Thai before the CIB will formally begin the case against Thaksin so the CIB will seek help from the Foreign Ministry for the translation.

Now I am confused; the police have decided to prosecute Thaksin for lese majeste based upon English language interviews that they appear not to have translated.

Asian nations under fire for Suu Kyi inaction

15 May 2009 - AFP

"Burma's Asian neighbours came under fire from rights groups on Friday for largely staying silent about the fresh charges levelled by the military junta against democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to use its influence with its most troublesome member, and said that China, Japan and India should also use their weight.

Asean ambassadors met in Rangoon on Friday to hammer out a statement on the group's perennial problem country, but the 10-member bloc has historically shied away from criticising the ruling generals.

Indonesia and Singapore were the only members to directly call for Aung San Suu Kyi's release and condemn the charges, which state that she breached the terms of her house arrest when a US man intruded on her lakeside house.

"The charges against her are not appropriate. Why should Aung San Suu Kyi be detained when it was the American national who swam across the waters to her house?'' Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said in Jakarta.

Singapore's foreign ministry said in a statement that it was "dismayed'' by the charges against the 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and also called for her release.

In Bangkok, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said only that his country "hope(s) that she should be released'', adding that Thailand was "very, very concerned'' about the possibility that Burma could extend her detention.

Aung San Suu Kyi faces a five-year jail term if found guilty at her trial, which will be held in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison, where she was taken on Thursday from her home.

She has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention, most of them in virtual isolation at the sprawling lakeside property where she received the bizarre visit from US national John Yettaw last week that led to the charges.

Mr Kasit said Thailand's ambassador in Rangoon would meet with his Asean counterparts to discuss a statement by the bloc, which has a policy of non-interference in members' internal affairs.

Senior officials from Asean and its six dialogue partners -- China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand -- would also meet on the sidelines of a regular meeting in the tourist island of Phuket in Thailand on Tuesday, he said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone voiced "deep concern'' over the new charges, local media reported. Japan is the top donor to Burma among the OECD's major economies.

But there was silence from the rest of the region. China, one of Burma's closest allies and a major consumer of its vast natural resources, remained silent on the charges against Aung San Suu Kyi, as did India.

London-based Amnesty International called on the UN Security Council, "notably China and Japan, and Asean countries, (to) urgently intervene to secure Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release from Insein prison''.

"They are best placed to bring the necessary pressure to bear on the Burma government,'' it said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch, based in New York, made a similar appeal.

"China, India, Singapore, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries should be calling for a genuine and participatory political process in Burma, which means serious public pressure for the release of political opponents,'' said Elaine Pearson, the group's deputy Asia director.

"Aung San Suu Kyi's latest arrest shows how their silence simply encourages more contempt for basic freedoms,'' she said in a statement."

The expenses crimes get worse

15 May 2009

There must be a few honest MPs out there. But they are either in hiding or non existant.

Heads are starting to roll - and they should. But there will be more to follow. But there appear to have been acts that are criminal as well.

The veteran Conservative MP Andrew MacKay resigned as senior parliamentary adviser to Cameron after jointly claiming £170,000 over four years on properties with his wife, fellow Tory MP Julie Kirkbride. Effectively they got the taxpayer to pay for both their properties.

Cameron described his behaviour as completely unacceptable after it was revealed that MacKay designated Kirkbride's constituency flat in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, as his main residence, allowing him to claim the annual £24,006 additional costs allowance on their joint London home. Kirkbride designated this property as her main residence, allowing her to make claims on her constituency flat.

Elliot Morley, a Labour former environ­ment minister, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour party after he admitted claiming £16,800 in mortgage payments on his constituency home 20 months after repaying the loan. You know when your loan is paid off.

Justice minister Shahid Malik resigned today. He was revealed to have claimed thousands of pounds in taxpayer allowances on his ­second home while renting his main home at less than market rentals. Malik had run up the highest expenses claim of any MP, claiming second home allowances – £66,827 over three years – on his house in London. He rented his main home in his Dewsbury constituency at a discounted rate of less than £100 a week.

But the person who everyone expects and wants to fall is Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, who seems unwilling to lead any change.

Senior ministers tonight voiced the fear that the crisis shows no signs of abating. "It gets worse every day," one cabinet minister said. The housing minister, Margaret Beckett, was heckled on the BBC's Question Time programme when the expenses issue was raised.

Thainess

15 May 2009

The seven national values of Thainess as proposed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand is causing much mirth on the tag-board.

This all started at an annual trade event promoting Thailand in Sydney and Melbourne with an ‘Amazing Thailand’ roadshow and gala dinner event at the Westin, Sydney.

Suladda Surutilavan is the Tourism Authority of Thailand ASEAN South Asia and South Pacific Market Division Spokesperson. Sounding like someone who has missed the last 3 years on news she said - "Thailand is now back on track [this year] with a promotional concept which is called Amazing Thailand: Amazing Value....this is not just about value for money, but your clients will also receive emotional value with profound satisfaction and happiness."

She continues. “Why I say this is because there are seven underlying strengths in the Thai travel industry.”

“Thailand offers the seven national values of Thainess, treasures, beaches, nature, health & wellness, trains and festivities.”

Err - since when are trains a Thai national value. There are few of them; they are old, slow, run down etc. Someone should give these spokespeople for Thailand a script they can use!

Which then prompts other thoughts on the seven values of Thainess!

sun, sea, sex, scams, smog, singha, songkran

temples, traffic, tom yum, transvestites, torrential rain, tourists and tuk tuks.

riots, red shirts, red duck curry, refugees, retirement, r & r, rca

police, pretties, pimps, phuket, pole-dancing, patpong, pad thai, PAD, PPP, ping pong show
 

EK drops BKK fares to fill A380 seats

15 May 2009

Emirates decision to move the whale jet (A380) onto the daily Bangkok flight (372/3) always seemed a strange decision. While the through flights - 384 to Hong Kong and 418 to Sydney are almost always full 372/373 have notoriously had lighter loads.

In addition the June launch of the A380 takes EK's new airplane into Thailand's low season. A season made even lower this year by riots and flu.

EK is making lots of positive noise about its launch of the A380 on this route; but to fill seats it is having to discount fares to Bangkok at rates lower than at anytime over the last three years. UAE travelers are being offered an economy class return fare of Dh1,635, while business and first class return fares start from Dh5,655 and Dh11,655 respectively.

Fares are inclusive of taxes and ticketing must be completed by May 31.

In addition the fare can be paired with accommodation offers at 12 Marriott Thailand properties.

These include a complimentary night and free children's meal for every two nights booked by the passenger. The hotel offers are valid from June 1 to October 31.

EK 372 departs Dubai at 09.40am, arriving in Bangkok at 7pm. It turns around as EK 373, departing Bangkok at 9.25pm and arriving in Dubai at 12.30am the following morning. This is a change on previous flight timings. When the flight was operated by a 777 it left Bangkok at 8.30pm with a 11.55pm return to Dubai. It says a lot about the A380 that it needs an extra hour to turn it around in BKK.

Dubai golf project may be delayed

15 May 2009

Doubts were raised yesterday over whether the Norman Clubhouse, the centerpiece for the golf course that is to host the richest golf tournament in the world, will be ready in time for the event. In the current economy this is no great surprise.

The Mediterranean-themed clubhouse, named after veteran Australian golfer Greg Norman, lies at the heart of the Earth course, where the Dubai World Championship will be played in November, with the winner taking home prize money of US$2million.

Leisurecorp, the company developing the residential golf community at Jumeirah Golf Estates, said that due to the timelines involved, alternative plans are in place;  a semi-permanent structure is being considered in case the Norman Clubhouse is not completed in time for the tournament. 

The Dubai World Championship is the climax to The Race to Dubai golf competition, spread over 51 tournaments.

The top 60 tour players at the end of the season compete for a $10m pool of prize money at the Dubai World Championship.

An additional $10m for the top ranked 15 players after the Dubai World Championship is up for grabs.

Leisurecorp is part of government owned conglomerate Dubai World. It is another Dubai company that is in talks with contractors to slash the amounts owed to them by an amount believed to be 30 percent.

Emirates on EU blacklist

15 May 2009

The European Commission has published an aviation blacklist involving 8 airlines, which failed to address concerns about misleading customers over online ticket sales.

EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Juneva announced yesterday that 8 airline companies were blacklisted for failing to respond to the commission's 18-month crackdown into misleading claims on airline and air ticket websites in 15 EU countries plus Norway.

The blacklisted airlines are: Olympic, Turkish Airlines, Royal Moroccan Airlines, Northwest, Air Baltic, Aeroflot, Wing Jet and Emirates.

"This is not just a signal that they have some problems, it is a signal that these companies do not care too much to reply to the consumers' concerns," she told reporters.

Kuneva said the situation for consumers improved greatly over the past two years, and added, "The clear message from the airline industry is that they want a level playing field."

She advised consumers to remain alert on unclear price information, whereby extra non-optional charges are added throughout the booking process, sometimes at the end.

The Commission started in September 2007 an 'enforcement investigation' into misleading and hidden charges on 137 airline websites.

115 airline websites were corrected in the process.

Three Air carriers -- Germanwings, Niki and SkyEurope -- are engaged in constructive dialogue with the commission on "outstanding issues."

ASEAN's shameful tolerance of Burma's junta

14 May 2009

ASEAN and Chinese tolerance of the Burmese junta shames them all. India is equally culpable.

The 63-year-old aung San Suu Kyi, who was stopped by the junta from taking power after winning elections two decades ago, has today been charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest after a US man swam across a lake and hid inside her home.

She will go on trial on Monday on the charges, which carry a maximum jail term of five years and would stretch her detention past its supposed expiry date this month and through (self serving) elections due in 2010.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her two maids appeared in court at the infamous Insein Prison near Yangon, hours after police whisked her away from the residence where she has been detained for most of the past two decades.

The Economist simply describes the Burmese junta as an illegitimate, high-handed and thuggish regime.

There was little doubt that, when the current term of the lady's house arrest came to an end later this month, the generals would extend it. However, they seem to have been bothered about possible reaction to this, and to have wanted a pretext. They have come up with one so preposterous they might have been better off simply issuing a decree.

John Yettaw, the American intruder was not invited. He swam across the lake by Miss Suu Kyi’s house, using plastic containers as floats. Far from abetting him, Miss Suu Kyi reportedly told him to go away, but let him spend the night on her floor when he complained of exhaustion from his aquatic endeavours. He is said to have spent a lot of time at the house praying. He is a Mormon; Miss Suu Kyi is a devout Buddhist.

She is to face trial on Monday, and until then will remain in detention in Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar’s capital, along with the two helpers who live in her house. The verdict, which might as well come before the trial, will be guilty, and the sentence is likely to be between three and five years in jail.

The junta’s immediate aim is presumably to keep Miss Suu Kyi under lock and key until after it has staged an “election” next year. This will be the first since one in 1990, which, to their horror and astonishment, Miss Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide. This time, a constitution has been rigged in advance to ensure the army’s continued dominance of politics.

Since 1990 the NLD’s leadership and organisation has been harassed into tatters. Yet Miss Suu Kyi herself is still capable of scaring the junta. She remains popular because of her ancestry, as the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, because of her self-sacrifice and because years of systematic repression have eliminated almost every other source of opposition to a deeply unpopular government. The generals have reason to worry about what might happen if she is allowed out on to the streets.

Foreign opinion (except in ASEAN and China who will say nothing) will be rightly outraged by the farcical legal case. Miss Suu Kyi has been in different forms of detention for almost all the past 20 years. Winning the Nobel peace prize and the support of many of the world’s leading political and religious figures has done little to help her. International policy towards Myanmar covers the full spectrum: from harsh sanctions (America), milder sanctions (Europe and Japan) to full-blooded commercial engagement (China, India and Myanmar’s fellow members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations).

In America, the Obama administration has yet to make clear whether it will change policy towards Myanmar. Why bother. The junta has only one interest. Staying in power.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the most visible of Burma’s prisoners of conscience. At least 2,100 dissidents remain in jail, in conditions far more brutal than her house arrest. Worse Burma’s ruling military junta has held the entire nation captive for almost fifty years. It ranks alongside North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe in the inhumanity stakes. The regime’s callousness was on full display a year ago, when after Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster in years, it initially refused international aid and denied access to aid workers. Over 140,000 people died, with more than 2.5 million left homeless.

As if this catalogue of horrors was not enough, the regime is alleged to be carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Karen, Karenni and Shan peoples in eastern Burma. Burma has become Asia’s Darfur, but without the world’s cameras.

Also forgotten are the ethnic groups in northern and western Burma. The Muslim Rohingyas are denied citizenship despite living in Burma for generations. The Chin are a majority Christian population, and they are targeted for their faith.

The time has surely come to say enough is enough. It is time for the UN to invoke its much-flaunted Responsibility to Protect mechanism, to impose an arms embargo on the regime and establish a commission of inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity. And if the Chinese are to become responsible world citizens they need to be a part of this action.

Meanwhile the silence from ASEAN is embarrassing.

PAD goes political

14 May 2009

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has informed the Election Commission (EC) of its intention to register as a political party, EC secretary-general Suthiphon Thaveechaiygarn said today.

The request was filed on April 24, he said.

Mr Suthiphon said the commission was verifying the party's statement of policies and its rules to ensure they abide by the law. This process would be completed within 30 days after the request is filed.

The PAD, after all, has such a fine track record of abiding by the law! Memories are so short.

Election Commissioner Praphan Naikowit said the checks will include whether the name People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) would cause confusion or mislead the general public. Now if the EC was doing its job this name would never be allowed. The PAD stands for a massive roll back of democracy. Votes only for those people pre-approved by the PAD.

The name of a political party must not affect the country's stability or cause any disunity within the nation. I think they have already done that!

According to an EC official Krit Ua-wong, the registration paper has the name of Mrs Supamart Promsoot as party leader, and Yongyos Lekklang as party's secretary-general. The party's head office is at Nakhon Ratchasima province's Muang district.

Name of PAD core leader Sondhi Limthongkul does not appear in the document, Mr Krit said.

Democrat chief adviser Chuan Leekpai refused to comment when asked if he thought the formation of the PAD party would bleed off support for the Democrats as supporters of his party tend to be the same group as the PAD supporters.

He said only that new political parties were often set up after old ones were dissolved.

The PAD has applied to register the name Panthamit Prachachon Pua Prachathipatai, with the abbreviation พ.ป.ป (por phor phor). The official English translation would be People's Alliance for Democracy, with the abbreviation PAD.

That's the end for Abhisit and his Democrats. He may last until the next election; but after that the only hope he has is a PAD/Democrat (and others - where will Newin's group go?) alliance.

Police to charge Thaksin with lese majeste

14 May 2009

Outlawed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be charged with lese majeste for comments made in interviews with foreign news agencies last month, police announced on Thursday.

The decision was made by a special committee comprising representatives from the Metropolitan Police Bureau, the Central Investigation Bureau and the Office of Information and Communication Technology.

Police Special Branch chief Theeradech Rodpho-thong, who chaired the hour-long meeting, announced the finding.

Pol Lt-Gen Theeradech said the fugitive politician violated article 112 of the criminal code regarding lese majeste in comments in interviews given to foreign news agencies on April 12 and 13.

All evidence would be sent to Central Investigation Bureau on Friday, he said.

The committee met earlier on April 27, but the members were unable to agree whether Thaksin's statements showed contempt for the monarchy.

Biting the gland that feeds you

14 May 2009

This really is not worth reporting but I liked the headline !

The Pattaya News reports that a Belgian tourist was severely injured early Thursday when his Thai lady bit his male organ and almost severed it. The tourist, Eddy Iam De Velde, 56, was rushed to the Pattaya Memorial Hospital and doctors managed to save the man's organ.

The hospital reported the event to police at 5:30 am. The man told police from his hospital bed that his girlfriend, who he has been living with for about a month, injured him.

She said the woman became angry after learning that he had another Thai lover. The two quarreled while having sex so she bit him and he called friends to send him to the hospital. He really could have picked a better time to tell her !

Police will apparently arrest the woman whom has yet to be identified.

Ladyboys of Great Yarmouth!

14 May 2009

The Great Yarmouth Mercury is reporting that a gender row has hit the town's Hippodrome Theatre over a two-day visit by the all-male Thai cabaret show - the Lady Boys of Bangkok - later this month.

Great Yarmouth is a Norfolk seaside resort on England's East coast.

Female staff have threatened to walk-out of the historic building unless they are allowed to wear identification that they are NOT Lady Boys.

Guaranteeing: “You'll never look at the opposite sex the same way again” the Lady Boys of Bangkok cabaret - performed by 16 of the world's most beautiful showgirls (who just happen to be men!) - is coming to the Hippodrome on May 27 and 28.

With its blend of fun and music the show glides from disco floor to the Broadway musical stage and features tributes to Katy Perry, Whitney Houston, Girls Aloud and Kylie Minogue.

Ruth Patterson, who has worked at the Hippodrome for the past five years said she had heard when the show opened at Brighton a number of the women staff were asked if they were “real” women.

She said: “Because it is a cabaret being performed in a real party atmosphere, some people just get carried away with the whole thing. I certainly don't want people in Great Yarmouth asking me if I'm a Lady Boy! Although I am jealous of their fabulous figures.”

The female staff threatened to walk out after the management refused to allow them to wear T-shirts bearing the slogan “I am NOT a Lady Boy,” saying it was contrary to the Hippodrome's staff dress-code.

The Hippodrome's owner, Peter Jay, said there had never been an incident like this in the circus building's 106 year history.

The staff will now be offered badges bearing the phrase “I am 100% woman”.

Reality bites

13 May 2009

Reality bites in Thailand today with a series of cancellations that might even show those who are still in denial that there are some serious problems in Thailand.

The big news is that the government has postponed the Asean+6 summit from June until October (maybe!). Allegedly some ASEAN leaders are not available to attend the proposed Phuket gathering. In reality the government would have checked the June date before it was announced. And now they are left with egg on face as ASEAN leaders have said no thanks; fearing a repeat of the Pattaya fiasco.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya predictable said on Wednesday that the postponement was not linked to Thailand's failure to control red-shirt protesters in Pattaya. Security concerns were not the reason for the postponement, he insisted.

To add to Phuket's woes the Phuket Film Festival scheduled from June 4 to 11 will still be cancelled. The festival organiser sent a press release on Wednesday cancelling the Festival. The organisers thought that the tight security around the Asean Summit in Phuket might discourage filmmakers and visitors to participate in the film event.

Despite the Asean summit being postponed to October, it was thought to late to restart the Film Festival.

And finally the Asian Golf Tour has lost its flagship Masters of Asia event after sponsor Volvo pulled out, blaming the confusion surrounding golf in the region and political unrest in host country Thailand. This is an event that Emirates also sponsors.

The season-ending tournament, first played in 2002, was not the richest on the Asian Tour but was seen as its premier event for Official World Golf Ranking purposes.
Singaporean Lan Chih Bing was the defending champion.

Its demise is another blow to a Tour battling not just the global economic crisis but the emergence of the rival OneAsia Tour, which has taken over four events from the Asian Tour. These include the China Open, an event sponsored by Volvo.

The tournament, Asia's equivalent of the iconic Volvo Masters at Valderrama, has been played at the Thai Country Club in Bangkok since 2005.

It traditionally wrapped up the season, with a gala dinner held afterwards to recognise the Asian Tour's player of the year and rookie of the year.

In addition to the four events OneAsia has taken over, the Asian Tour has also lost the Jaidee Invitational, another Thailand-based tournament, this year after their sponsor, Raimon Land, pulled out.

Heads in the Phuket sand

13 May 2009

Poor old Thailand. Some of its senior officials really should receive special awards for uttering daft public statements.

The latest, but one of many that will be associated with the ASEAN summit to be held in Phuket, is from senior security officials who have raised objections to the government's plan to allow regional leaders to bring their own armed bodyguards to the rescheduled summit.

Bizarrely one source told the Bangkok Post said that the proposal would deal a heavy blow to the country's integrity and security image. That security image could not get any lower after the airport closure in December and the failed Pattaya conference.

Yesterday there was a meeting of senior officials to discuss security preparations for the coming summit. The meeting at the armed forces headquarters was chaired by army chief of staff Ratchakrit Kanchanawat.

The summit's security plans will be proposed to the Internal Security Operations Command before the 2008 Internal Security Act is invoked to secure Phuket for the meeting's duration, tentatively scheduled for June 13-14. Fortress Phuket. If I were a red shirt I would be blockading the only road onto the island and the only road to the airport. The yellow shirts successfully and far too easily closed Phuket airport last year.

Yesterday's security meeting resolved that the Asean leaders' request to bring their own armed guards to the summit was unacceptable. Then they won't come. Why should they? Thailand failed to protect them last month.

The security officials say that the only foreign armed guards to ever set foot in Thailand were those accompanying US presidents. Really? And the Chinese bodyguards are not armed? And others?

Any compromise would be at the expense of Thailand's security image. If foreign bodyguards come to the summit, officials at the meeting said they must be unarmed and in limited numbers. dream on

Hopeless.

Thaksin gets a Montenegro passport

13 May 2009

Time to get out your atlas.

The government of the small Balkan country of Montenegro has issued a passport to Thaksin Shinawatra, Noppadon Pattama, former legal adviser to the fugitive ex-prime minister confirmed on Wednesday.

He would not say if it was a diplomatic passport, like the passport the government of Nicaragua, in Central America, has given Thaksin.

Mr Noppadon also said Thaksin has passports issued by several countries because their leaders are his good friends and sympathise with him for the unfair way he has been treated in Thailand.

He also confirmed reports that Thaksin is interested in buying Sveti Nikola, a small island of 37,000 square metres in the Adriatic Sea with three long sandy beaches also known by local people as 'Hawaii'.

The rocky island, only a short way off the coast, is being offered at auction. The reserve price set by the First Bank of Montenegro is 21 million euros, about 987 million baht.

Thaksin sees potential in developing the island for tourism, he said.

The auction is set for May 23.

Thaksin has already informed the Montenegrin government of his interest as an investor in purchasing the island, Mr Noppadon said.

In other Thaksin news he is apparently seeking to purchase his own private jet; previously he appears to have been using a NetJets executive jet based out of Dubai. He is also seeking to hire Thai cabin crew. Do we have a name yet? Air Tacky ???

NTSB releases Buffalo crash data

13 May 2009

The NTSB has released the first detailed information on the 1 February crash of Colgan Air (Continental Express) 3407 at Buffalo Airport, New York. All 49 on board were killed together with one person on the ground.

The animation of the final two minutes of the flight can we viewed here:

http://www.ntsb.gov/Events/2009/Buffalo-NY/AnimationDescription.htm

The public hearing and the final report is going to be grim. The feeder airlines are under huge cost pressures. If this crew is any example of the industry standard then there are genuine safety issue to be rapidly addressed. The Captain had failed five check rides in his career. He appears to have slept in the crew lounge at Newark before starting his duty for the day. The co-pilot had flown overnight from Seattle to Newark before starting her flight duty. Fatigue must have been an issue.

Further the crew appear to have had no simulator experience in dealing with a stalled airplane and little experience of icy conditions.

"I've never seen icing conditions," First Officer Shaw tells Renslow. "I've never de-iced. I've never seen any-- I've never experienced any of that. I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of call[s.] You know I'd have freaked out. I'd have, like, seen this much ice and thought, 'Oh, my gosh, we're going to crash."

Yet she is rostered to fly into Buffalo at night on February 1st. Cold and ice was almost inevitable. This is not a good story. It was an accident that should not have happened.

Jazeera loses Dubai hub

13 May 2009

I wonder what really happened here. Jazeer had based a number of A220s in Dubai and operated direct flights from a Dubai hub to Middle East and |South Asian destinations.

But yesterday the airline announced that it will stop flying these direct flights next month.

“Regulatory restrictions” were given by the airline as the reason for the route changes from the UAE to Delhi, Mumbai, Sana and Salalah which will now go via the airline's Kuwait City base.

The regulatory changes, which will increase costs for the airline, also meant services to the southern Indian city of Kochi and to the Sudanese capital Khartoum would be cancelled from June 1, the airline said in a report in UAE daily Gulf News.

Andrew Cowen, the carrier’s CEO, said the Kochi route had to be cancelled because of the "high cost of operating the route".

"We would prefer to continue to offer non-stop services to many destinations from Dubai but unfortunately regulatory changes in the UAE have meant that it is no longer economical for us to do so," a spokesman added.

Dubai has acted as the Jazeera’s second hub since early 2007. The airline was the only budget carrier to have permission to use the airport, and operated from Terminal 1.

However, changes to the “fifth freedom”, which allows an airline to carry traffic between a second and a third country, has forced an increase in costs. Does this impact other airlines that operate fifth freedom flights from Dubai? Is this what happens when Dubai's aviation regulator (the GCAA); airport operator and Emirates and Fly Dubai are all under the same ownership.

In 2007 the Dubai authorities had granted permission to Jazeera to open its second hub here in Dubai. Why two years later have they changed their mind?

Jazeera is left with eight daily departures from Dubai to Kuwait and Bahrain, both served non-stop.

I guess this is one way of protecting the new flyDubai airline but after significant investment by Jazeera in its Dubai operations this seems like an unfortunate reversal of policy.

Expenses farce

11 May 2009

The trouble with the UK's House of Commons is that the UK's elected officials see themselves as an exclusive club beyond the law. They write rules to suit their own interests; then largely ignore then through customs and practice that are all about self serving greed.

With their heads in the sand they demand a police inquiry to find the person who leaked MPs expenses to the media. Which misses the point completely. These are the same MPs who are taking taxpayer money and spending it on items such as the following:

Conservative former minister Douglas Hogg submitted claims for more than £2,000 to clear a moat around his estate and £14,500 for a housekeeper.

Alan Haslehurst is reported to have claimed £142,000 on his country house, and £12,000 for gardening bills over five years. He has told the BBC that he did claim for £142,000 and said he moved his second home allowance from London to his constituency when he became deputy speaker and believes that the claim was within the rules.

A senior backbencher claimed more than £7,000 for his garden, including hedgecutting for a "helipad"

Other MPs are accused of claiming for mowing and rolling paddocks and one reportedly claimed £380 for horse manure and hundreds of bags of fertiliser.

Shadow minister David Willetts – nicknamed "two brains" – charged £80 to "change light bulbs in bathroom".

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley spent thousands renovating a thatched Tudor country cottage – and sold it shortly afterwards. He is then said to have "flipped" his expenses to a Georgian flat in London, and claimed for furnishings, including a Laura Ashley sofa.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling claimed thousands of pounds to renovate a flat in central London - bought with a mortgage funded at taxpayers’ expense - even though his constituency home is less than 17 miles from the House of Commons.

Oliver Letwin, who is in charge of the Tories' general election manifesto, claimed more than £2,000 for a leaking pipe to be replaced under his tennis court

And shadow Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan submitted a groceries claim that included £4.47 of pet food.

Luton South MP Margaret Moran claimed £22,500 of taxpayers' money for treating dry rot in a house in Southampton, many miles from her constituency or Westminster

Hazel Blears claimed to the Inland Revenue that a property for which she pocketed thousands in Parliamentary second home allowances was, in fact, her main residence - thereby evading £18,000 of Capital Gains Tax. Tax avoidance is a criminal offence.

Yet the UK's MPs don't admit to fault. It is the fault of something called 'the system'  -  which, it seems, has nothing to do with them. The trouble is that these same MPs devised and manipulated the system.

Parliament is simply incapable of policing itself. Reforming the rules won't address the real problem. There is no accountability.

If this was a business there would be a set of  simple and clear rules and allowances. MPs would not be claiming second homes paid by the taxpayers. They would be staying in approved accommodation and receiving a daily allowance when they are away from home. Entertaining and travel expenses would be the subject of clear rules. There would be an independent accounts function to review expenses and an internal audit function to ensure compliance.

Instead Parliamentary integrity is shattered. How can this parliament command public respect for its laws when the institution passing them has not only been revealed to be institutionally corrupt, but refuses to acknowledge this fact?

How are people to be expected not to fiddle the system or avoid paying their taxes when the Chancellor of the Exchequer stands accused of 'flipping' the status of his residences back and forth to milk the expenses system - including getting his stamp duty paid by the taxpayer?

Fire the whole lot and start again. Reduce the number of political constituencies from hundreds to less than 100. Less to feed at the trough. Move Parliament out of high cost London to somewhere around Derby.

What an ugly, ugly, self-serving, greedy bunch of misfits.
 

More information needed

11 May 2009

Dubai based high profile developer Nakheel has confirmed that it is receiving funds from the Dubai government as it looks to complete projects and pay outstanding obligations.

"The actual figure is confidential and so are all the other details, but yes Nakheel is receiving funds," Chris O'Donnell, the Nakheel CEO, said in comments published by Emirates Business.

The developer said it was also talking to its contractors and re-negotiating payments plans and contracts.

"Yes, we are trying to help them and ourselves through our current situation. We are at the stage of commercial settlements and negotiations. Rather than detail on percentages, it is a true statement to say that construction costs are falling and there is definitely a reduction," added O'Donnell.

Sadly I doubt that any savings from these lower costs and renegotiated contracts will be passed onto investors in Nakheel's projects.

Dubai sold $10 billion of bonds to the UAE central bank earlier this year to raise funds to support state-linked companies suffering from the financial crisis, and plans to issue another $10 billion in bonds later this year.

Speaking about the latest on the status of Nakheel projects, O'Donnell said that work on Palm Jebel Ali has slowed down while the Palm Deira and the Universe projects are on hold.

However, construction on Jumeirah Village and Al Furjan is progressing, he said.

What O'Donnell did not say was on what basis is the money being received? Is it a loan, a share deal, a handout or simply a good old-fashioned marker which will be paid back at a future date to be determined. Nakheel is one of the most prominent Dubai owned companies; it really does need to do more to restore confidence than this inadequate and opaque disclosure.

The UK government's expenses mess

11 May 2009

The House of Commons expenses scandal widened today to include Tories (gardening expenses. changing lightbulbs and dog food) in addition to the disclosures of the already humiliated Labour Party. No surprise here. The Tories will have their hands as deeply in the till as the Labour Party. And no one has started yet on the House of Lords; whose expenses must be similarly embarrassing.

All this makes the electorate look foolish and their elected officials a bunch of money grabbing self serving ingratiates.

The amazing thing to me is that there have been zero resignations and absolutely no interest by the police. An investigation by the Department of Public Prosecutions would not be surprising and should be encouraged.

The standard defense is that it is "within the rules." But the rules are being smashed time and time again - expenses are meant to be due solely to parliamentary value and also of good value to the tax payer. MP's are now repaying items which is pretty much a confession of expense fraud.

The first step is the MP's should be stripped of the title "honourable" and referred to as Mr. or Ms. There is nothing honourable about their behaviour so lets not give them this false belief. They have lost all public respect.

The UK's members of parliament have arrogantly insisted that they were not breaking the law. The moral standing of parliament has never been lower.

Maybe the only silver lining is that the degree of outrage about their allowances suggests voters still expect them to behave better, to be governed not by the letter but by the spirit of the law, and above all by their conscience. Voters expect their MPs to behave well and their governments to make a difference. But it may be too late for this hapless bunch. Naming and shaming is necessary. But there should be more than a few resignations. The - she/he did it so I thought I could do it really is no defense.

Disturbing find off the coast of Sattahip.

11 May 2009

The Pattaya News is reporting a disturbing story now from Sattahip District involving the discovery of containers thought to contain dead bodies.

The story first broke last week on Thai TV Channel 3 following the discovery of a container surrounded by reportedly hundreds of skeletons. This discovery was made almost two months ago but remained a closely guarded secret until the story was leaked to the press last week.

The Pattaya News understands that a total of 8 containers have been found in three separate locations between Phie Island and Pram Island and 30 nautical miles off the Coast of Juang Island which are all located in the Gulf of Thailand.

For many years fishermen have reported the capture of skeletal remains in their fishing nets, however many cases have remained unreported. There is a suggestion some of the containers have been at the locations for up to 20 years.

Now that the exact locations of the containers have been identified and a full report has been made to the Police, it is thought these containers will now be recovered and the contents will be revealed.

Locals fear the worse and suggest the containers are full of bodies, but this cannot be confirmed until the containers are recovered.

There appears to be very little interest in this story in Thailand's national media; and it has not been picked up by the international media. But it may just be that the past is coming back to haunt some people and in that there may be lessons for modern day Thailand.

Thailand's tourism woes

7 May 2009

I had lunch with one of my friends this week. Bright guy. We were discussing many things including my recent trip to Thailand. I would not go there now he said. It is not safe; and if the airport is occupied again then I wont be able to leave.

People do have choices; and there are many attractive alternatives to Thailand.

A slew of further bad news last night will not have helped. Thailand's English language newspapers are slow to report the details; but the international media has no such restraint.

Patpong night market is a popular shopping destination. But last night hundreds of market vendors clashed with police and commerce department officias in the busy market and entertainment district.

Bottles were thrown at police and tourists who had been shopping found themselves in the middle of a pitched battle between vendors and police as the Thai authorities seem to have started a new faze of crackdowns aimed at stamping out copy goods that infringe copyright.

The forecourt of the luxurious Montien Hotel close to Patpong apparently became a battle ground between angry traders and police. Several cars were extensively damaged. Police fired shots into the air to try and disperse the crowd.

Officials arrested about 10 sellers and made off with four vans loaded with confiscated counterfeit goods, mostly pirate copies of bags and clothes. The arrested vendors were taken to Bangrak police station.

Later in the night hundreds of sellers marched to Bang Rak police station to file charges against the commerce officials. Some sellers, covered in blood smears, told reporters they were assaulted by the raiding party.

Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said on television programmes on Thursday morning that raids on sellers of pirate goods would take place every two days from now on. He said officials would be required to display identification before commencing arrests and confiscating goods. All areas famous for such products, like MBK, Khlong Thom, Ban Mor or Saphan Lek, would be subjected to the crackdown.

Meanwhile about 1,500 protestors gathered at Government House in Bangkok. They are demanding the government unblock television and radio stations sympathetic to ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra including demanding that satellite-based D-station be allowed to broadcast within two weeks.

While on the beaches two foreign tourists have died mysteriously and two others are seriously ill from unknown causes after holidaying on Phi Phi Island according to the Phuket Gazette. Speculation surrounds the circumstances of the deaths as the authorities have yet to make any official statements.

And a female tourist from Switzerland was found strangled on a beach in the southern province of Krabi. Police said the tourist was found dead on Noppharat Beach in Tambon Aonang of Muang district. She was found lying down with the strap of her handbag tied around her neck.

There was also a shooting incident in Khao Sarn Road earlier this week.

Inflated prices on Palm Monorail

7 May 2009

The privately owned and operated Palm Monorail has opened to widespread criticism of its inflated prices.

The monorail runs to the Atlantis resort on Palm Jumeirah and tickets are priced at AED25 for a round trip and AED15 for a single journey. A family of 4 would pay AED60 one way and AED100 for a return trip. Yet  a taxi ride for four from Atlantis to tip of Palm would be AED 10.

In response to an inquiry from Arabian Business about the ticket price structure, a Nakheel spokesman said: “Palm Monorail offers passengers a unique travel experience on the first monorail system of its kind to be opened in the Middle East. Passengers can also enjoy unparalleled views of one of Dubai’s most iconic landmarks from the over-ground track which sits at 10 metres above ground level."

The monorail will initially shuttle up to 2,400 passengers per hour between the Gateway Station at the trunk of Nakheel’s man-made island and Atlantis stations at the crescent, where visitors can access the Atlantis Hotel and Aquaventure waterpark.

Four separate trains, each made up of three cars, will initially run along the 5.45km dual-track railway, with the journey between the two stations lasting nine-minutes.

A room with a flu

6 May 2009

Two more days to go and the Great Metropark Confinement can end. It makes you want to get tee shirts proclaiming - Free the Metropark 300.

The confirmation that a Mexican hotel guest had the H1N1 virus prompted Hong Kong's authorities last Friday to quarantine more than 300 guests and staff at the modest Metropark hotel in Wanchai, a short walk from a street markets and a collection of popular bars and strip clubs. The Mexican flu victim is being treated in isolation at a hospital.

In Mexico, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and other places where the new flu strain has appeared, authorities have urged patients and those in contact with them to remain isolated to prevent the infection from spreading. No other government has enforced a mandatory confinement; in this case seven days.

And there cannot be many bleaker places to be stuck for seven days than in Wanchai's Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong. It is an older hotel (it was the Metropole); the rooms are small. There is no pool or gym (not that they would be much use). Guests are encouraged to stay in their rooms except when summonsed to information meetings or at meal times.

Did the Hong Kong Government over-react? Did Chief Executive Donald Tsang and his team see a rare opportunity to show the world how decisive they can be? Was it a sensible reaction in a city so badly impacted by SARS six years ago? Essentially this has been a public relations exercise (for Hong Kong's residents not for visitors)  rather than hard-headed, medically informed public policy.

Outside the hotel, police in face masks stand guard at the hotel's entrance and at nearby crosswalks blocked by yellow police tape. No one is allowed out; and only allowed in with authorisation. Journalists and television camera crews were standing outside near the glass windows of the hotel lobby.

Inside the hotel, government staff and medical workers administer flu tests and check guests' temperatures every few hours. Those with fevers are taken to a hospital for testing. So far none have tested positive for the virus. Apparently the medical team go from room to room in teams of four. Must be weird.

The confinement must have created tension and drama. It has also not been totally effective. As of Monday, authorities said 40 to 50 hotel guests were still unaccounted for. Police are in pursuit of the remaining guests who may be hiding out with friends or staying at other hotels. What will happen to those guests if they are only traced after the seven day quarantine period is over. Were they obstructing justice? Were they evading police? Would you go back into a hotel if it was surrounded by police and men in white coats?

Just one mean thought; there are almost certainly a number of single businessmen or visitors who are trapped in the hotel with someone that they thought was a short term, at most overnight guest and who has now become their unshakeable partner for a week. Wanchai is known for having no shortage of temporary company. Does it cost extra if your short time date becomes a seven day relationship !?

Then there are the seven Singaporeans quarantined in Hong Kong; some at the hotel and others in the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, a newly-designated 'isolation camp' in the New Territories. I suspect the Singaporean authorities would have reacted the same way.

The Singaporean New Paper called the Metropark this week and were told that guests were not allowed to receive outside calls. Ridiculous. The media also could not contact the holiday village.

Conditions at the Metropark do not sound good:

At first, the guests passed the time sitting in the lobby, watching the journalists watching them and reading messages the journalists were holding up. Most of the messages from the journalists were of their phone numbers and pleas for interviews, according to the South China Morning Post.

By 11.30am on Saturday, hotel officials covered the lobby windows with white cloth - cutting off visual contact.

Complaints are emerging of poor sanitation, lack of daily necessities and messed-up travel schedules. Initially there was little food available and a long wait for drinking water.

With staff also quarantined there was no maid service, no laundry service and no room service. The hotel kitchen is closed.

Reports say that there have been no towel, bedsheet and blanket replacements. Without laundry guests get disposable socks and underwear. Guests do their own laundry.

Breakfast is a bottle of water and a spam sandwich. And a swiss roll.' Lunch is rice or spaghetti. Pizza is now on the menu as well.

The guests are like the United Nations. Koreans, British, Chinese; there is a South African couple with a 10-month-old baby and their grandmother. Imagine if they are all in the same room!

Guests are now being given free Internet access and HK$200 ($40) a day for expenses.

One more question; if the guest had been staying at one of Hong Kong''s five star hotels; say the new Four Seasons; would the government have taken the same draconian action? I wonder.

Etihad's fiction

4 May 2009

Etihad Airways is offering UAE travellers some attractive last minute bargain fares, following the launch of an online sales promotion.

The special 'e-Deals' will feature on the airline's website every Monday and Tuesday and offer residents of the UAE during that 48 hour period access to Etihad's very lowest air fares. The fares will cover a selection of cities each week from across the airline's global network and include short-breaks around the region as well as holiday destinations further a field such as Johannesburg, Melbourne and New York.

For instance this week Etihad is advertising return economy fares from Abu Dhabi to: Bahrain, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo from Dhs 40; New Delhi from Dhs 100; and London Heathrow, Manchester, Munich and Casablanca from Dhs 200. Booking must be made between Monday, 4 May and Tuesday, 5 May and travel completed by Monday, 18 May.

But, the e-Deal fares are completely misleading. The fares exclude any fuel surcharge. An AED 200 fare to London becomes AED 920 before any taxes. The AED 200 is completely misleading. Further how does Etihad justify any fuel surcharge given the fall in oil prices from USD150 a barrel to USD50. While the fares are still attractive the advertising is grossly misleading.

Banker builds ugly in Newton Ferrers

Tuesday, 28 April 2009 - Kingsbridge and Salcombe Gazette

"A former high profile banker is alleged to have upset neighbours in Newton Ferrers after ignoring planning conditions on his riverside home. Andrew Longhurst was the chief executive of Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society between 1982 and 1995 and owns several properties in the picturesque village of Newton Ferrers.

Work on extending one of his houses, Riverhaven, in a conservation area has sparked unrest among neighbours and villagers. The design, which involved demolishing the property and replacing it with a three-bedroom design, was approved by South Hams Council in May 2008.
 
But, it was then claimed, conditions were not followed on the project which is being constructed by Ivybridge-based JDC Building. The garage basement of Riverhaven, which was allowed to hold two cars and also includes an electric turntable to reposition vehicles, is now reportedly big enough to house seven cars. It has been described as a bunker.

A new full-width balcony has also not been created to scale and overlooks other properties. Mr Longhurst has now submitted a retrospective planning application.
But there is great unrest among parish councillors and local homeowners as they claim several new developments are out-of-keeping with Newton and Noss.

Mark Studd, a chartered sureyor, who lives near Riverhaven, said: ‘There is a strong feeling locally that not enough is being done to protect this picturesque area of outstanding natural beauty. ‘There is also a feeling of if you have enough money you can build whatever you want.’

Mr Longhurst, now retired, led Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society through its eventual sale to Lloyds Bank Plc in 1995. He graduated from Nottingham University in 1961 with an honours degree in mathematics and statistics and rose through the ranks at Cheltenham and Gloucester after joining in 1967.

It is understood he may own up to as many as five properties in Newton and Noss including a listed building near to Riverhaven. Mr Longhurst’s first plans for Riverhaven were rejected and another planning application was re-submitted and approved with no objections. It is understood the basement was made bigger so as to allow for safe movement of cars and to create a small workshop and utility area. The proposed balcony will project out a further 1.10 metres.

Gaille West, a planning officer from South Hams Council, recommended the retrospective Riverhaven application for approval. Her report noted that the width of the dwelling house remains unaltered and the rear footprint, the height and the overall floor level have all in fact been slightly reduced. Mrs West concluded: 'The proposed amendments to the new dwelling are not considered to result in any additional harm or detract from the qualities and landscape setting of the immediate or wider Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
 
'While the concerns raised by the neighbouring residents and the parish council have all been taken into consideration, the proposed amendments are on balance considered to be acceptable and do not fundamentally change the overall good design.' Members of the South Hams Council planning commitee voted last Wednesday to carry out a site visit before making a decision.

But Suzi Cooper, the district council member for Newton and Noss, said: 'I feel strongly that the views of local people are not being taken into consideration. 'If you have planning permission you should build what you apply for – not do whatever you want and then ask afterwards. 'The chief planning officer of the council said we couldn't just turn this down because it would go to appeal and could cost the council money. 'But, if that is the case, why have any rules?'"

UPDATE

The thatched cottage next to Riverhaven is apparently up for sale; the work on Riverhaven has taken a long time and it would be no fun living next door to bunker builders.

Fatal flaws that wrecked Thailand’s promise

Financial Times - published April 29 2009 19:50

"In 1995 The Economist projected that by 2020 Thailand would be the world’s eighth-largest economy. Its forecast, which now looks a tad, shall we say, optimistic, followed a 10-year run in which Thailand muscled out even China as the world’s fastest-growing economy, expanding at a blistering 8.4 per cent a year. Those were the days.

The decade after the Asian financial crisis, which began with the devaluation of the baht and ended with the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister, has not been so kind. Although the country bounced back from the 1997 devaluation, when it carelessly misplaced 15 per cent of gross domestic product in 18 months, the economy never recovered its former vigour. It has bumbled along at a respectable, but less than socially transformative, 4-5 per cent a year. This year its economy is likely to shrink by some 5 per cent. In that, admittedly, it is not alone.

Yet it is fair to ask why Thailand has failed to fulfil its potential. Once mentioned, at least by the excitable, in the same breath as high-tech Taiwan, it is now more likely to be grouped with the high-maintenance Philippines. Far from closing in on the world’s eighth-biggest economy – a slot currently occupied by Spain, with an output nearly six times that of Thailand – it languishes in 33rd place. In per capita terms it plods in at an even more pedestrian 78th, with an income of $3,851, far below Taiwan’s $17,000 although above the likes of Indonesia at about $2,000.

Adding to its woes – or arguably helping to explain them – Thailand is stuck in a seemingly intractable political crisis. Long a country of coup and counter-coup, for years it nevertheless managed to maintain something approaching political stability. Now it is caught in a trap in which a previously disenfranchised rural poor wants a say in a political system still dominated by the Bangkok elite not yet prepared to allow the “barbarians” through the gate. The stand-off has undermined the already shaky confidence of foreign and domestic investors.

This month, Thailand showcased its political chaos for flummoxed regional leaders attending the Association of South-east Asian Nations summit. The gathering was cancelled and the likes of Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, had to be evacuated after the conference facilities were stormed by a brightly coloured mob of Mr Thaksin’s supporters. In subsequent clashes on the streets of Bangkok at least two people were killed. A car carrying Abhisit Vejjajiva, the third prime minister since democracy nominally returned in 2007, came under attack after he declared a state of emergency. There are, Mr Abhisit said with admirable understatement in a Financial Times interview last week, “some major challenges we have to face up to”.

One of the reasons Thailand has failed to flourish as once predicted is that its growth was built on weaker foundations than supposed. What was in the 1950s an economy based on US patronage, and exports of rice and tapioca, developed into one fuelled by Japanese capital looking for a home after the revaluation of the yen in the mid-1980s. Japanese companies poured in money, building an industrial base, especially in car manufacturing, that remains central to whatever economic success the country still enjoys.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, local entrepreneurs clambered aboard, funded by a powerful local banking system and oiled by age-old connections. The political situation was always chaotic; there have been 18 coup attempts since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, 11 of them successful. But for much of the time, according to Supavud Saicheua, an economist at Phatra Securities, the country maintained an uneasy equilibrium between monarchy, military, aristocracy and bureaucracy.

Thailand produced few truly world-class companies. It remained, by and large, a rentier economy, funded by foreign capital and driven by foreign expertise. At the time, of course, that was all the rage. In 1991, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund held their annual meetings in Thailand, a testimony to its openness and liberal reform. That went to Thailand’s head. In 1993 it went the whole hog, liberalising its capital account and setting in train the disastrous over-borrowing in foreign currency that ended with the 1997 crash.

The crisis led to what Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker call in their book Thailand’s Boom and Bust a “decapitation of Thailand’s [foreign-currency indebted] capitalist class”. The country has never recovered from the mass beheading. Today, bank lending to business languishes at two-thirds of 1990s levels. The economy has become more dependent on foreign demand, a liability in a world of frightened consumers. Trade accounts for 150 per cent of GDP, against 80 per cent before 1997.

The destruction of Thailand’s entrepreneurial class helped pave the way for Mr Thaksin, one of the few capitalist survivors of the crisis. He converted his wealth, which came courtesy of a telephone monopoly, into political capital, riding into office with the votes of a newly empowered rural poor.

Mr Thaksin’s election and subsequent conduct proved too much for a Bangkok elite that had not previously seen fit to share power. Its displeasure was finally vented in the coup of 2006, an attempt to roll the country back to a prelapsarian land of smiles. But there is no going back. Unfortunately, it is not yet clear how Thailand can move forward either."

The Road Home

3 May 2009

I have not watched Zhang Yimou's movie "The Road Home" before; but it was on television this afternoon. And it is a remarkable movie; such a simple theme, so richly filmed. Emotional on many levels; but above all else a story of love and faith; that is set against, but largely ignores the political turmoil of 1950s/60s China.

The Road Home is the story of a country girl (Zhang Ziyi in her debut film) and a young teacher falling in love during the 1958 Anti-Rightist Movement and the teacher's death many years later that brings their son back from the big city for the funeral.

The film begins in black and white in present day China (the film was released in 1999) when the son returns to his village from the city upon hearing of his father's death. His mother, Zhao Di, insists upon following the tradition of carrying the coffin back to their remote village by foot so that her husband's spirit will remember its way home...which gives the film its title.

As the narrator, the son recounts the story of his parents' courtship, so famous that it has gained the status of a legend in the village. It is here the bleak black and white turns into vivid colors as the story shifts to the past.

His father came to the village as the teacher. Immediately, Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi) becomes infatuated with him and he with her. Thus begins a courtship which consists mostly of the exchange of looks and glances between the two. Unfortunately, the courtship is interrupted when the teacher is summoned by the government, probably because he was deemed as a "Rightist" by the new communist government. Zhao Di loses her heart and falls gravely ill, so ill that the villagers think she will die. However, upon hearing the news, the teacher is able to sneak back to the village for one day and Zhao Di, in tears, welcomes the sight of her beloved. Still, their love cannot be consummated for two more years as the teacher is kept away from the village as punishment for having left his assignment in the city without permission.

Returning to the present day, and black and white, the son realizes how important this ritual of carrying the coffin back to village is to his mother, Zhao Di, and he agrees to make all necessary arrangements to fulfill her wish. He is told by the mayor of the village that it might be difficult to find enough porters to carry the father home, as there are few young able men left in the village. The mayor and the son reach an agreement on the price to be paid to the porters. Upon setting out on the way home, more than 100 people show up to help carry home the casket of the man who was their teacher through various generations in the village. Others who would have come to help were unable to do so because of the heavy snowstorm. The mayor returns the money to the son, as no one will accept payment for doing what they consider to be an honour rather than a task.

On the morning of the day the son leaves to return to his job in the city, he fulfills his father's dream and teaches a class in the old schoolhouse that was central to his parents having fallen in love.

There is a moving soundtrack and the colour scenes are beautifully vivid.

This is the films' review from Variety magazine:

"A boldly conceived movie in which emotional texture is paramount, mainland Chinese helmer Zhang Yimou's "The Road Home" takes the simplest of stories and weaves a seductive, extremely moving portrait of a young woman's unshakable love. Picture is very different in look and tone from Zhang's previous works but seems likely to do solid niche business internationally and maybe extend his following into wider arenas.

Following "Not One Less" (shot immediately before the current item), "Road" reps a strong double comeback for Zhang after considerable negative publicity about both works before the 1999 Cannes fest. When "Less" was offered a slot in Un Certain Regard and "Road" rejected outright, Zhang publicly "withdrew" both pics, with the former going on to win top prize at the Venice fest and garner good reviews. (Pic goes out Stateside through Sony Classics this month.) Initial reaction at Berlin to "Road," which opened in China last fall, was very warm.

Among mainland movies, one has to think back to Sun Zhou's mid-'90s "Heartstrings" for a pic of such emotional clout from such potentially flimsy material. At its simplest level, "Road" is a son's remembrance of the story of his parents' courtship during the late '50s in a small village in Hebei province. On deeper levels, pic deals with such unfashionable subjects as the permanence of memories, imperturbable faith and the need to retain older values in today's aggressively market-driven China.

It's no accident that the opening and closing, set in the present, are shot in grim, unfriendly black-and-white, as businessman Luo Yusheng (Sun Honglei) returns to his native village of Sanhetun after the sudden death of his father. Luo's aged mother, Zhao Di (Zhao Yuelin), rebuffs his suggestion that the coffin should be brought home from the hospital by tractor, and insists that they follow the age-old custom of having it carried by local men and that she herself weave the funeral cloth.

As Luo recalls in voiceover the famous story of his parents' love affair, pic morphs into color and back into an initially unspecified period, with the 18-year-old Zhao Di (newcomer Zhang Ziyi, soon to be seen in Ang Lee's swordplay costumer "Hidden Tiger, Crouching Dragon") falling for the handsome new teacher, Luo Changyu (Zheng Hao), when he arrives to build a school in the tiny, remote burg.

As the males construct the building, Zhao Di joins the other women in cooking them food, patiently waiting for the time when it will be the turn of her and her mother (Li Bin) to host the teacher for a meal at their home. Just when the love story is beginning, Luo Changyu is suddenly ordered to leave, prompting one of the movie's most magical sequences, in which Zhao Di runs hither and yon with a bowl of his favorite steamed dumplings as she tries to cut him off at the pass.

On paper the story may sound trite. But the accumulated detail in Zhang's careful mounting (with an entire sequence devoted to repairing a broken bowl, in closeup) and the power of Hou Yong's widescreen lensing and San Bao's filigree orchestral score, are such that the movie starts to exert a strong emotional undertow in its second half. After Zhao Di has kept a seemingly endless vigil, Luo Changyu finally returns for one day, on the lam, before going back to "the city" where he's been ordered to stay. The pair aren't reunited until two years later.

Notably, Zhang is not concerned with exterior events, despite the fact that the flashback section is set during one of Communist China's most turbulent and ghastly periods. The reason for Luo Changyu's sudden departure is never specified, though it's obviously part of a political purge; and apart from a mild slogan painted on the school wall, the production design is almost completely free of the usual paraphernalia in '50s stories (banners, slogans, et al.).

Everything is focused on the central love story and, more specifically, Zhao Di, through whose eyes and feelings we observe the strength of the relationship -- a strength that plays into the pic's final section as the funeral procession is arranged in the present day. Luo Changyu himself is little seen and backgrounded even less: We accept Zhao Di's commitment to the man in her life even though we see only her side of it.

As the young female lead, Zhang's latest discovery, Zhang Ziyi, is both seriously cute and perfectly cast. In contrast to helmer's early peasant pics with actress Gong Li, "Road" isn't a mud-under-the-fingernails sexual meller. Instead, it draws on conventions of mainstream Chinese romances -- "poetic narrative," in the director's words -- but refines them to a high degree of purity that's almost abstract: Zhao Di has perfect teeth and a flawless complexion, pretty pigtails and natty peasant clothes. When the pic reverts to B&W and the present day, the effect is startling.

As the contempo son, Sun is largely a blank page, his emotions conveyed by voiceover. Both Li, as Zhao Di's blind, sharp-tongued mother, and Zhao, as the present-day Zhao Di, are excellent. Original Chinese title simply means "My Father and Mother."

 

Emirates defends safety procedures

3 May 2009

Quoted in an article in today's Herald Sun Emirates Airline says that it added extra safety checks to its take-off procedures in a bid to prevent a repeat of the near-fatal tail strike of a passenger jet at Melbourne Airport.

The company said it had installed a second laptop into each of its aircraft to avoid a repeat of the Melbourne incident on March 20, when incorrect data was loaded into the plane's computers, causing it to set an inadequate take-off speed.

Senior Emirates managers Alan Stealey, Andrew Parker and Tim Jenkins strongly denied claims the airline had a problem with fatigue or that it ordered its pilots to take off at reduced power to save fuel.

But they refused to say why the two pilots involved in the Melbourne incident had been forced out of the company before a preliminary report was released, insisting they had resigned.

"I can't go into that, it's confidential between an employer and an employee, all I can repeat is they offered their resignation and the company accepted," Mr Stealey said.

Technically this may be correct; but it is a little self serving. Every indication is that the operating crew were given no option other than to resign and that the letters were pre-prepared for their signature.

Mr Parker said the company rejected suggestions that fatigue had been an issue in the accident.

"We certainly don't accept that premise and I think the ATSB also emphatically stated for this particular event that's not the case," he said.

Mr Stealey also rejected the fatigue claims.

"We get advice on when crews should eat, sleep, be awake, drink coffee, avoid coffee, do exercise, try and sleep, to give a rest strategy for that crew," he said.

"We use PDAs, similar to Blackberries, where they have an alertness test and we can actually measure just how alert they are all through their flight and during their lay-over as well.

"Finally, we ask them to complete diaries...we then put it through and send it to one of our consultants who is an ex-NASA alertness specialist in the US.

"He validates the information we gave to him . . . we are quite comfortable saying that fatigue, we do not believe fatigue was an issue with this particular event."

Mr Stealey said Emirates pilots averaged 75 flying hours a month over a year-long period - a figure disputed by pilots, who said they average 90 hours a month and often reach their maximum allowable limit of 100 hours.

"Emirates' record speaks for itself in that it has a 98 per cent pilot retention rate and every month has more than 1000 new pilot applications from pilots wishing to fly for Emirates, including many Qantas pilots," he said.

Mr Stealey said the error at Melbourne had slipped through four layers of checks designed to pick up any inaccuracies, a situation he described as "perplexing".

The badly damaged aircraft remains in a hangar at Melbourne Airport, but the company said it would be repairing it.
 

Many splendoured films

The Australian - originally published on 11 April 2009

Hong Kong is one of the world's great cinema destinations and 2009 marks 100 years since a 10-minute comedic short titled Stealing a Roast Duck became the first film produced here, igniting a love affair with the silver screen that has helped launch the careers of stars such as Bruce Lee, Michelle Yeoh, Jackie Chan and director John Woo. Visitors to Hong Kong can still be stopped in their tracks as film crews take to the streets or light up cafes and skyscrapers. And there are plenty of locations where Hong Kong's classic moments of cinema can be relived.

Chan is Hong Kong's most popular, and bankable, international movie star thanks to his more than 100 films, including the famous Rush Hour franchise. Chan's career began with a small role in Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962) when he was eight, but the action star, now 54, believes his finest moments are the closing scenes of the multi-award-winning Police Story (1985): eight minutes of fight sequences in which Chan leaps from floor to floor in the Wing On Plaza, smashing through glass windows and taking on all comers.

While most of Chan's more recent films have been shot overseas, the star often returns to use his home city as a movie backdrop. The award-winning New Police Story (2004) has Chan do battle along busy Chater Street in Central and inside Wan Chai's Convention and Exhibition Centre. The typhoon shelter next to the centre was where his character in The Myth (2005) moored the yacht he called home.

The Philippe Starck-designed restaurant Felix, on the 28th floor of The Peninsula Hong Kong, meanwhile, was where Chan tried to woo the stunning Shu Qi in Gorgeous (1999).

Star Ferry, between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central: The emblematic ferry has featured in hundreds of films as a backdrop, but most famously it helped romance blossom between the lead characters (played by William Holden and Jennifer Jones) in 1955's Oscar-winning Love is a Many-Splendoured Thing and 1960's The World of Suzy Wong (starring Holden and Nancy Kwan). "The ferry takes William's character to a whole new world," Kwan has been quoted as saying. "It seems to be one of the things everyone remembers about that film. That and my cheongsams."

The short journey is best taken at night when the city is at its neon-sparkling best; passengers have a full view of Hong Kong's Symphony of Lights from 8pm. The old Central clock tower featured in both films may have made way for reclamation, but the fare has hardly changed through the years; it's just $HK2.20 (40c) for a one-way ride. www.starferry.com.hk.

Avenue of Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade: Bustle your way past the touts, who push everything from souvenir harbour photos to handmade jewellery, to this corporately funded tribute to Hong Kong's film industry, which begins with a star dedicated to the grandfather of local cinema, Lai Man-wai. The boardwalk stretches for about 800m and also features the handprints of Hong Kong's more contemporary heroes, such as Jet Li. The avenue's most popular attraction is the 2.5m bronze statue of Bruce Lee, now cordoned off from over-enthusiastic fans. www.avenueofstars.com.hk.

International Finance Centre, Central: The latest glittering star on the Hong Kong skyline towers above a high-end shopping centre that is home to Hong Kong's best cinema (Palace IFC) and one of its top dumpling houses (Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao Shop). IFC has also become a magnet for superheroes: Christian Bale's Batman (in last year's The Dark Knight) and Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft (in 2003's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life) leapt from its upper reaches. Jolie's feat was the more impressive as, thanks to the wonders of modern filmmaking, she managed to enter the IFC from the driveway of Times Square, which is in Causeway Bay, 2km away. www.ifc.com.hk.

Central Escalator, Des Voeux Road, Central: A short-haired Faye Wong cruising up and down Central is the lasting image of Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express (1994) and there are still plenty of Wong wannabes similarly travelling the world's longest outdoor covered escalator every day.

The moving walkway links the business end of Central with the bars and cafes of the SoHo district and it goes downwards in the morning peak hour rush, and upwards any time else. "We were amazed no one had ever shot there before as it's something that takes you right into the heart of the city," the movie's cinematographer Chris Doyle says.

Most recently, the escalator has been seen in The Dark Knight as Morgan Freeman's character wanders past the antiques shops along Hollywood Road.

The Peak: A romantic walk on the path that circles the Peak was enough to ensure Holden stole Jones's heart in Love is a Many-Splendoured Thing. Couples can re-create their passionate embrace, with the harbour as backdrop, and there are plenty of professional photographers on hand willing to capture the classic pose in a souvenir shot. www.thepeak.com.hk.

Hongkong Tramways, Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan: Double-decker trams have been dissecting Hong Kong Island since 1904, running from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan and even today charging a mere $HK2 for the pleasure. But the trams are not usually the venue for hot scenes such as those played out in Patrick Tam Yiu-man's Nomad (1982). This leader of Hong Kong cinema's so-called new wave decided to sneak in some celluloid sex on the top deck of one of the famous trundlers. Legend has it the scene so shocked the people at Hongkong Tramways that they've been reluctant to let filmmakers aboard since. www.hktramways.com.

Temple Street Night Market, Yau Ma Tei: Director Fruit Chan Kuo's films focus firmly on the lives of ordinary Hong Kongers. "I set my films where the real people live and work," he says.

His acclaimed Durian Durian (2000), Little Cheung (1999) and Made in Hong Kong (1997) all feature the myriad characters to be found in and around the Temple Street Night Market.

Its hectic blend of traditional market attractions, such as fortune tellers and Cantonese opera singers, is mixed with stalls hawking electronic goods, marked-down clothing and film memorabilia. The traditional tea restaurant Mido Cafe (63 Temple St) sits right in the middle of it all, seemingly unchanged from when it opened in 1950, with ceiling fans and art deco furnishings, cheap coffee and its signature baked pork ribs and rice. Grab a booth by the windows on the first floor and watch the market come to life. www.discoverhongkong.com.

Stanley Military Cemetery, Stanley: The funeral scene in Woo's seminal action epic Hard-Boiled (1992) is one of the film's few still moments. Stanley Military Cemetery, on Wong Ma Kok Road, where that scene was shot, is a short walk from the markets and waterfront restaurants of Stanley Village. The cemetery sits in sombre tribute on a steep hill. Graves date back to 1841. www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/Cemeteries/StanleyMilitaryCemetery.

Cafe de Goldfinch, Causeway Bay: This cafe in Lan Fong Road opened in 1962, the year the affair starts between Maggie Cheung's and Tony Leung Chiu-wai's characters in Wong Kar-wai's sumptuous In the Mood for Love (2000). Little wonder the director decided its wood-panelled walls and quiet booths would make the perfect setting for the pair to have coffee. A block from the towering Times Square shopping centre, the goldfinch sculpture still takes pride of place on a wall and coffee is a snip at $HK20, or you can sit under a poster of the stars and relive their scenes with a well-priced dry martini. (The paper placemats make great souvenirs.)

The China Cafe, Mongkok: When director Johnnie To turns his attention to the low lives of the city's triad gangsters, he often uses this cafe as one of their meeting places. It has featured in PTU (2003) and Election 2 (2006) and is a great place to soak up the local atmosphere while enjoying fried noodles before heading to the nearby flower, goldfish and bird markets (Flower Market Road, Yung Choi and Yuen Po streets, respectively).

Jardine House, Connaught Place, Central: When it opened in 1973, this was the tallest building in Hong Kong. Built for the Jardine Matheson taipans and promptly nicknamed the House of 1000 Arseholes, due to its round windows (and perhaps some of its inhabitants), it was commandeered in 1988 for the television series Noble House, based on James Clavell's novel of the same name. But in 1977, along with Causeway Bay's Excelsior Hotel, it managed to survive the onslaught of The Mighty Peking Man, Hong Kong's version of King Kong. A near riot broke out while shooting took place for this cult classic on the surrounding streets as the star, German soft-porn queen Evelyn Kraft, was filmed chasing after the beast, climbing up lamp posts and losing various items of clothing along the way.

Tian Tan Buddha (Big Buddha), Ngong Ping, Lantau Island: The Infernal Affairs Trilogy, combined and remade in 2006 into Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed, reached its climax in 2003 as underworld forces from Hong Kong and mainland China negotiated a truce beneath the watchful gaze of this 34m seated bronze statue of Buddha.

You can get there by bus or cable car; the latter is not a trip for the squeamish, especially if there's a wind blowing. www.discoverhongkong.com.

Hong Kong Film Archive, Sai Wan Ho: A fitting finale for any film fan's tour of the city, this hidden treasure at 50 Lei King Rd houses copies of almost every Hong Kong film made after World War II; exhibitions, screenings and seminars are scheduled each week. www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/attractions."

The one film that I would add to this list is "Comrades, Almost a Love Story" with Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai living ten years of Hong Kong history, set to a soundtrack from Teresa Teng.

You can read much more on Hong Kong movies at this site - Love HK Film.

And all of this is a good reason to publish a picture of my favourite Faye Wong.

An invention that could change the internet for ever

Revolutionary new web software could put giants such as Google in the shade when it comes out later this month. Andrew Johnson reports

3 May 2009 - The Independent

"The biggest internet revolution for a generation will be unveiled this month with the launch of software that will understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has never managed before.

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

Although the system is still new, it has already produced massive interest and excitement among technology pundits and internet watchers.

Computer experts believe the new search engine will be an evolutionary leap in the development of the internet. Nova Spivack, an internet and computer expert, said that Wolfram Alpha could prove just as important as Google. "It is really impressive and significant," he wrote. "In fact it may be as important for the web (and the world) as Google, but for a different purpose.

Tom Simpson, of the blog Convergenceofeverything.com, said: "What are the wider implications exactly? A new paradigm for using computers and the web? Probably. Emerging artificial intelligence and a step towards a self-organising internet? Possibly... I think this could be big."

Wolfram Alpha will not only give a straight answer to questions such as "how high is Mount Everest?", but it will also produce a neat page of related information – all properly sourced – such as geographical location and nearby towns, and other mountains, complete with graphs and charts.

The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out "on the fly", according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in "10 flips for four heads" and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.

Dr Wolfram, an award-winning physicist who is based in America, added that the information is "curated", meaning it is assessed first by experts. This means that the weaknesses of sites such as Wikipedia, where doubts are cast on the information because anyone can contribute, are taken out. It is based on his best-selling Mathematica software, a standard tool for scientists, engineers and academics for crunching complex maths.

"I've wanted to make the knowledge we've accumulated in our civilisation computable," he said last week. "I was not sure it was possible. I'm a little surprised it worked out so well."

Dr Wolfram, 49, who was educated at Eton and had completed his PhD in particle physics by the time he was 20, added that the launch of Wolfram Alpha later this month would be just the beginning of the project.

"It will understand what you are talking about," he said. "We are just at the beginning. I think we've got a reasonable start on 90 per cent of the shelves in a typical reference library."

The engine, which will be free to use, works by drawing on the knowledge on the internet, as well as private databases. Dr Wolfram said he expected that about 1,000 people would be needed to keep its databases updated with the latest discoveries and information.

He also added that he would not go down the road of storing information on ordinary people, although he was aware that others might use the technology to do so.

Wolfram Alpha has been designed with professionals and academics in mind, so its grasp of popular culture is, at the moment, comparatively poor. The term "50 Cent" caused "absolute horror" in tests, for example, because it confused a discussion on currency with the American rap artist. For this reason alone it is unlikely to provide an immediate threat to Google, which is working on a similar type of search engine, a version of which it launched last week.

"We have a certain amount of popular culture information," Dr Wolfram said. "In some senses popular culture information is much more shallowly computable, so we can find out who's related to who and how tall people are. I fully expect we will have lots of popular culture information. There are linguistic horrors because if you put in books and music a lot of the names clash with other concepts."

He added that to help with that Wolfram Alpha would be using Wikipedia's popularity index to decide what users were likely to be interested in.

With Google now one of the world's top brands, worth $100bn, Wolfram Alpha has the potential to become one of the biggest names on the planet.

Dr Wolfram, however, did not rule out working with Google in the future, as well as Wikipedia. "We're working to partner with all possible organisations that make sense," he said. "Search, narrative, news are complementary to what we have. Hopefully there will be some great synergies."

What the experts say

"For those of us tired of hundreds of pages of results that do not really have a lot to do with what we are trying to find out, Wolfram Alpha may be what we have been waiting for."

Michael W Jones, Tech.blorge.com

"If it is not gobbled up by one of the industry superpowers, his company may well grow to become one of them in a small number of years, with most of us setting our default browser to be Wolfram Alpha."

Doug Lenat, Semanticuniverse.com

"It's like plugging into an electric brain."

Matt Marshall, Venturebeat.com

"This is like a Holy Grail... the ability to look inside data sources that can't easily be crawled and provide answers from them."

Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of searchengineland.com

Worldwide network: A brief history of the internet

1969 The internet is created by the US Department of Defense with the networking of computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.

1979 The British Post Office uses the technology to create the first international computer networks.

1980 Bill Gates's deal to put a Microsoft Operating System on IBM's computers paves the way for almost universal computer ownership.

1984 Apple launches the first successful 'modern' computer interface using graphics to represent files and folders, drop-down menus and, crucially, mouse control.

1989 Tim Berners-Lee creates the world wide web – using browsers, pages and links to make communication on the internet simple.

1996 Google begins as a research project at Stanford University. The company is formally founded two years later by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

2009 Dr Stephen Wolfram launches Wolfram Alpha."

Fatigue an issue at Emirates

Herald Sun - Editorial - 3 May

"EMIRATES pilots are telling the Sunday Herald Sun that fatigue is a problem within the airline.

Further, they believe that fatigue might have played a role in the EK407 tail-strike accident at Melbourne Airport on March 20.

Three current Emirates pilots, speaking after the release of the preliminary report into the near catastrophe, have spoken to this newspaper in the past few days.

They have directly contradicted the airline's claims that its pilots are not flying fatigued.

"When people are tired these mistakes happen - there is more chance that errors will be made," said one pilot.

"There is a huge issue with fatigue."

A second Emirates pilot said: "They're working us like dogs. If there is going to be a fatigue-related accident it is probably going to be an Emirates plane."

A third Emirates pilot said that internal reports examining air safety and fatigue were not being taken seriously by management.

In releasing the preliminary report last week into the near-tragedy, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's director of aviation safety investigation, Julian Walsh, said the crew's work patterns were being looked at, but concluded: "Having said that, the information we have received from the crews through interviews plus other evidence, at this stage, is not indicating to any problem with fatigue."

Emirates executives were at pains to reject the possibility that fatigue played a part in the incident at Melbourne Airport.

In a letter sent to the Sunday Herald Sun yesterday, Emirates flight operations senior vice president, Captain Alan Stealey, said the airline closely monitored its crews for fatigue.

"Emirates is confident that pilot fatigue had no role to play in the March 20 event."

Last week, the Sunday Herald Sun - using impeccable sources - revealed that the pilot of EK407 was on the brink of reaching his 100-hour flying limit in a month.

Our front page report, headlined SLEEPLESS PILOT, and again based on impeccable sources, also revealed that the pilot had barely slept in the 24 hours before the incident.

The ATSB's report confirmed that the pilot had, in fact, reached 98.9 hours in the preceding 30 days.

The ATSB preliminary report has found a wrong load calculation entered into the plane's computer caused it to take off without enough speed.

As a result, EK407's tail struck the tarmac three times before the jet managed to just take-off, dump fuel over Port Phillip Bay and, thanks to some skilful flying, return 257 passengers safely to the ground.

Emirates pilots say at the heart of the problems within the airline is a "punitive culture" that spies on pilots and renders them too scared to speak up on safety matters for fear of being sacked.

One of the three Emirates pilots interviewed this week was scathing of the airline's management style.

"They report anyone for anything. You get a phone call and are called into the office," he said.

Clearly something is not right within Emirates.

One Emirates source has described the culture as a "very bad cocktail".

The ATSB must see through the airline spin and listen to the concerns of the pilots. Perhaps the time has come for authorities to take a broader look at Emirates and not simply limit their inquiry to the March 20 tail strike.

The pilots are, after all, the people who are directly responsible for the lives of hundreds of people every time they walk into the cockpit."

Star Trek (Number 11) coming soon !

2 May 2009

Opening next week is the latest Star Trek movie; this is number eleven, and it is some seven years since the last movie. In addition to the 11 movies there were six television series comprising a total of 716 episodes - 10 of which are feature-length.

The original Star Trek ran for three seasons from 1966. "Star Trek" debuted on NBC and television audiences were introduced to pointy-eared Vulcans, transporter beams and green-skinned women. But in an increasingly cynical 1969 NBC canceled "Star Trek" because of low ratings. The show soon begins its second life in syndication and starts attracting new fans.

It was syndication that made Star Trek popular; and in 1976 after NASA received close to 400,000 requests, President Gerald Ford named the first space shuttle Enterprise. The old crew started movie making in 1979 with  "Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (Also known as "TNG" and The Next Generation) is set approximately 100 years after The Original Series. The show premiered on September 28, 1987 and ran for seven seasons, ending on May 23, 1994

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Also known as "DS9", Deep Space Nine) is set during the last years and the immediate post-years of The Next Generation and was in production for seven seasons, debuting the week of January 3, 1993

Star Trek: Voyager was produced for seven seasons from January 16, 1995 to May 23, 2001, launching a new Paramount-owned television network UPN

Star Trek: Enterprise (originally titled Enterprise prior to the third season), produced for an abbreviated four seasons airing from September 26, 2001 to May 13, 2005, is a prequel to the other Star Trek series,[23] taking place in the 2150s, some 90 years after Zefram Cochrane developed the first warp-capable starship from a ballistic missile (Star Trek - First Contact) and about a decade before the founding of the Federation

So what was the best Star Trek Movie;  Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan - The story, action, pacing and acting were all the best of the series. Spock's "death" scene was arguably the most moving moment in the "Trek" series. The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country are strong movies as well. 

The Movies:

Star Trek - The Motion Picture - 1979   - Very forgettable.
Star Trek - The Wrath of Khan - 1982  - Terrific.
Star Trek - The Search for Spock - 1984 - predictable as he has to be found!
Star Trek - The Voyage Home - 1986 - Nimoy directed this back to the present search for whales. Fun film.
Star Trek - The Final Frontier - 1989 - Instantly forgettable
Star Trek - The Undiscovered Country - 1991 You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon. A good political who done it !
Star Trek - Generations - 1994 - Trying to handover to the Next Generation. For die hard fans only.
Star Trek - First Contact - 1996 - I liked this movie. The Borg are still the best of the bad guys.
Star Trek - Insurrection - 1998 - Jean Luc Picard tempted by life eternal. But saves the Federation instead.
Star Trek - Nemesis - 2002 - Poor.
Star Trek - 2009 - to come !

It is hard to pick favourite episodes. But on this site there is a top 100 selection from TV episodes and films across the Star Trek history. I did not see so much of Voyager or Enterprise. They never really made it onto TV in Asia. But I do remember almost all seven years of TNG. Any episode with either Tasha Yar or Q was a highlight. And Patrick Stewart made a classy captain. In all seven years and even in the films he was never promoted !

HKGs' dramatic quarantine measures

1 May 2009

Hong Kong's government said that approximately 300 guests and staff of a hotel in the territory would be quarantined for seven days after a guest was found to have the A/H1N1 flu virus.

The extreme move comes after Chief Executive Donald Tsang said Friday that lab tests confirmed a visitor from Mexico who arrived on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai had the disease.

The patient was staying at the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai, which is owned by a local subsidiary of China Travel Service. Friday evening, police were outside the hotel preventing people from entering or leaving.

I wonder how far the police have been authorised to go should someone try to leave the hotel?

Guests at the hotel are free to move within the hotel, but can't leave and are being encouraged to stay in their rooms and minimize contact with others, the government spokesman said. They will be given preventative doses of Tamiflu.

The patient himself is being kept in isolation at a hospital. Hong Kong's Secretary for Food and Health, York Chow, said that three people who have been in close contact with the patient are also being separately quarantined.

Tsang said Friday that he would rather err on the side of over caution than let the disease spread.

The move to impose a quarantine reflects Hong Kong's experience coping with an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, in 2003, which made 1,755 people fall ill and killed 299 in the territory. The disease's spread was in part traced back to a single infected guest at the Metropole Hotel in Kowloon.

A large number of people are expected to be traveling this May 1 Labor Day weekend in both Hong Kong and China.

Mr. T - where are you now?

1 May 2009

Where is Mr. T now? It looks as though he has left Liberia where the local newspaper reported last week that "a Thailand delegation headed by former Prime Minster of that country, Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, has ended a private visit to Liberia.

The delegation held talks with the Chairman of the National Investment Commission (NIC), Dr. Richard Tolbert, in Monrovia on Wednesday.

Interesting - Thaksin was there with a Dubai based team from Black Pearl Capital according to the Monrovia Informer.  The newspaper reported that Thaksin was at the head of an eight-member investment exploration delegation. Black Pearl is a Cayman Islands based asset management and advisory firm.

The newspaper reported that Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra and his delegation (from Black Pearl Capital) discussed issues of investment possibilities in agriculture, oil exploration and extraction, exploration of precious metals, GSM and telecommunication license and lottery.

Mr. Shinawatra said the company has planned to extend its presence in West Africa, where markets are emerging. He said Liberia was one of the countries on its agenda, thus the exploratory visit.

Speaking in the office of Vice President Boakai Tuesday, the Thai millionaire said though he did not know much about Liberia in terms of the investment climate, the visit was intended to get first hand information and get an idea of where to invest.

He said his experts would further access the investment climate and opportunities, as this was just an acquaintance visit. In response Vice President Boakai welcomed the delegation to Liberia on behave of President Sirleaf and noted the visit was timely when Liberians were in search of investments in their country.

Boakai told the delegation "Get ready to invest anywhere," enumerating the vast forest, mineral and other resources that Liberia has.

Dr. Shinawatra said millions of United States dollars would be invested in which ever sector they would consider investing – agriculture, mining or telecommunication.

"Invest in any of these areas. We are looking for good investors and investments opportunities that will empower our young people and citizens in the rebuilding process of our country," Vice President Boakai said.

He then presented a copy of the Liberia's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) to the former Thai Prime Minster as a way of informing him about the development and investment priorities of the country.

Thaksin is suddenly interested in mining - such lovely irony. If only he had shown the same interest while Prime Minister of Thailand. There would have been massive job creation and a significant revenue flow for Thailand, which in this economy, would have been very welcome.

It is probably just a coincidence but the red shirt leader, Veera Musigapong is nicknamed Kai Muk Dam (Black Pearl) for his maverick style and rousing public rhetoric.