Entries from September 2006 ↓

I am sure you have not missed the 16 year old elephant in Korea that learned to copy sounds from his trainer. I saw the news on CNN and the elephant was so cute coping the sounds of his trainer.
” The pachyderm produces humanlike sounds by putting his trunk in his mouth and shaking it while exhaling _ similar to how people whistle with their fingers.”
 In the nighttime they have a infra red cam on an you can see the elephant talking to him self so dam cute
This reminds me that for the elephant to do this he must be pretty dam smart, to think of away to copy sound he normal can not say. Normally they talk in much lower voice that humans can not hear.
Now to come back to Thailand i want you tell you, beg you, demand you and plead to you please do not  feed elephants when you come as a tourist here.
More then often you see Baby elephant walking around in the middle of the city in Bangkok. Most of the time you can see them near the tourist areas like Patpong, Kosan Road or Nana. Along with the elephant is 2-4 people asking everyone to buy food for the elephant and you can pet the elephant or feed them.
The elephant should not be in Bangkok walking the streets you can see that there skin is bad the feet are hurting and there eyes are crying (i know i know but it looks like it). You can see its not a happy elephant at all. Furthermore it create traffic yams and once in a while some one run in to them and the they have to kill the it.
In the daytime the elephants live under the highway in the outskirts of Bangkok in a small place with some grass and a dirty pond.
By stop feeding the animals you can also help counter corrupting since this people dragging the elephants here have to pay money to the police to take them here.
So spread the word if we all stop feeding them and buying food from them they will not come anymore.

Some funny person in Bangkok Post (one of Thailand English speaking magazines) wanted to know what kind of Visa Thaksin had on arrival in UK?
 Its a good question because all my friends that try to get a visa in UK know that its very hard to convince them that they are not going to jump the ship and stay there. You really need to convince the embassy that you are actually going back to Thailand. In the former  PM case i guess he have all the reasons to stay and would not be granted visa if he was asked to apply for one. But maybe he comes on a asylum visa seeking refuges for all his money. As the rumor now goes he took 2 planes out full with handbags when he left Thailand 2 days before the coup.

The Thailand junta has now starting to ban more things.They just ban all political parties to do any rallies or any political activities. They also ban or wire tapping, maybe that a good thing because the former PM does have all the contacts in the area and the coup people do not. I guess it is the most easy thing to do, ban this and ban this even if there is no real punishment. The students holding a meeting for more then 5 people yesterday did not get arrested. There was some tanks and soldiers there to keep an eye on things but the did nothing to stop the meeting. Hopefully this coup will continue to be a coup with flowers on the tanks rather then guns.

Little bit worried not or as we say in Thailand Nit Noi.  The just closed down www.sep19.org (why in earth name did they hosted it in Thailand). The Ministry of Communication shut it down by order  from the new military junta. The group behind  the web site is going to have a peaceful rally tonight because they think that there right in a democracy. The junta or with the new name they took today, Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy CDRM. The CDRM also closed down 500 upcountry private local radio stations and they have forbidden all SMS and Call in to every TV or Radio show.
That means no one can call and report about traffic or call in for a competition or anything. The junta also express quote “to crush close down and stop” any media now following there directions. There was no word about written press.

Meanwhile the former PM was having a “holiday” in London and shopping with his daughter. His ex ministers was rounded up and sent to special location for holding. Close police aids to the former PM was reshuffled and some military groups was disarmed.

For me it sound very scary even if the military promises to hand over power they have not more then 10 days from now to do it. Lets of hope they will.

Day to unfolds and the coup is held in a cloud of roamers and speculations. Thaksins money have been sized, Thaksin did the coup, Thaksin is in London or Thaksin is flying to London, some one that can not be named is behind the coup, The revered King has approved the coup, The King has not approved the coup and many more strange roamers i do not even want to tell you because i probably be arrested.
All the key players in the coup Navy, Army, Air Force and Thaksins old buddy the Police made a statement that they will give over power to a neutral person in 2 weeks and election should be held October 2008. The the Administrative Reform Council (ARC) was kind enough to put the TV back on for the Thai people at 08.10 as well as UBC. BBC and CNN had to wait to around 11.00 mainly because i think they where looking for some one that could speak English and sit and press the “censure” button every time time Thaksin came on any new channel from abroad. So now every time Thaksins name is on BBC the poor chap has to click the “censure” button and then release it once the former PM is gone. Lucky for the Magazines they do not have to hide his head behind black cross overs. The ARC let the press free for now but is keeping a warning AK 47 to there heads.
The ARC also announced all banks and government offices closed for 1 day to summon them all up to a big meeting to brief them about the new situation. People took the opportunity to go and give food and flowers to the Soldiers and monks was seen blessing the tanks in the wee hours.
One of my friends had a coup of his own when his employees wanted to finished and go home because “everyone else was not working” they claimed civil war was about to come and mayhem on Bangkok streets was eminent and they needed to come home now. The small coup was crushed in a swift manners and the coup makers was sent to do toilet cleaning. To clarify the situation for my friend i took to the streets on a motorbike and i even if i drove for 30 min i could not see one singel solider or closed shop, just government and banks has there shutters down. Tomorrow suppose to be a normal day with normal traffic jams and no goverment business as usual lets see what is going to happen.