15 March, 2006

regrets:lack of thai and philippine coverage

AsiaPundit has been generally ignoring the rest of Asia while covering the NPC in Beijing. Normal updating will be further disrupted for a trip to Nanjing from Thursday for a much cooler event. Along with travel days, AP will be taking a break to spend time with Mrs AsiaPundit and our Infinite Cat Dee Dee. Regular updates will not be resuming until next week. This is regrettable as there is really interesting stuff happening on the rest of the continent.

As a site that aspires to be a pan-Asian tabloid, AP is particularly upset that he hasn’t had the time to keep abreast of events in the Philippines and Thailand. There is serious tabloid fodder in both countries at the moment.

Events in the latter country seem to be now getting much more attention from the Western press. Times of London correspondent notes on the paper’s official Asia blog that he has been flown in from Tokyo to cover the collapse of Thaksin’s government.

As for tabloid fodder - as if nationalism and cronyism were not enough - Richard aptly adds a sexual element into the story.:

Sex Workers 2

I encountered this group of ladies among the anti-Thaksin protesters along Ratchadamnoen Avenue, a few hundred yards from Government House in Bangkok.

They are standing in front of their painted cardboard box, one of dozens painted by demonstrators from various organisations. As it makes clear they are members of the Thailand Sex Workers’ Network.

They were distributing a statement apologising to their fellow Thais for the support which they had formerly given to Thaksin. Since his election in 2001, there has been a clamp down on Thailand’s world famous bars, clubs and massage parlours. The Network also objects to the unannounced on-the-spot urine tests which the police are now empowered to make in their “war” against drugs .

“We are just victims, and this leader despises us, and tramples on our dignity, regarding us as stupid buffalo,” the statement reads.

As for the Philippines, where there are a fantastic number of journalist bloggers,, Ellen Tordesillas reports that evidence of Gloria Arroyo’s alleged electoral fraud has now seemingly been revealed visually as well as on audio tape.:

 Wp-Content Photo3 01

AsiaPundit generally prefers that governments are removed democratically when the means are available. As both the Philippines and Thailand can remove leaders through the ballot or the courts, it would be unfortunate if either Arroyo or Thaksin were ousted by coup or rebellion.

AsiaPundit is not impressed with either leader, but he is not impressed by their opponents either.

As a Canadian, AP had waited more than 12 years for a reprehensible government to be replaced by a dreary opposition. That’s democracy and AP believes that it works better than any other existing system over a long term.*

(*However, AP is working on a system where governance could be based on voting on plans submitted by investment banks rather than parties or personalities. Choosing between UBS or Morgan Stanley would be better than voting Liberal or Conservative, Republican or Democrat, Arroyo or film star, etc…. AsiaPundit favors corporate governance).

by @ 12:01 am. Filed under Asia, East Asia, Philippines, Thailand

2 Responses to “regrets:lack of thai and philippine coverage”

  1. The Unabrewer Says:

    I’d love to vote for Halliburton.

  2. Irving Karchmar Says:

    Greetings:
    As a thoughtful person, may I commend to you my book Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel, a mystical adventure tale on the Sufi path of Love.
    You can view the book and read an excerpt at http://www.masterofthejinn.com
    In the Name of the Most Merciful, 10% of all profits go to charity.

    Peace and Blessings,

    Irving

Leave a Reply

[powered by WordPress.]

Free Hao Wu
Keep on Blogging!

Support Bloggers' Rights!
Support Bloggers' Rights!




Search Blog

Archives

March 2006
M T W T F S S
« Feb   Apr »
  1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25
27 28 29 30 31  

Categories

China

Japan

Hong Kong

The Koreas

Taiwan

India & South Asia

Global & Regional

Meta Data

Listed on BlogShares Ecosystem Details

Other

Design By: Apothegm Designs

sponsors



AsiaPundit Friends

Adopt


Recommended


Mr. China - by Tim Clissold:

How to lose $400 million in the world's biggest market.


Imelda - Power, Myth, Illusion:
A documentary on the former Philippine first lady that is damning, sympathetic and incredibly funny.


Yat Kha - Re Covers:
Siberian throat-singing punk band searches for its roots


5.6.7.8.'s - Bomb the Twist:
Three Japanese women play 1950's-inspired punk.


Gigantor Box Set Volume 1:
The original giant Japanese robot


Mao: The Unknown Story - by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday:
A controversial and damning biography of the Helmsman.

Recent Posts

recent comments

  • Falen: Michael, Are you trolling from one website to the next? How dare you to call Blues "anti-democratic"! I think...
  • Michael Turton: Both those commentors above are incorrect. Taiwan must have weapons to guarantee its own security,...
  • mahathir_fan: The source of the anger is probably because the Stephen YOung the unofficial "ambassador" to Taipei...
  • mahathir_fan: I want to applaud legislator Li Ao for his outspokenness on the arms procurement issue and for debating...
  • mahathir_fan: "A widening Chinese anti-corruption inquiry has targeted Beijing’s party leaders, in a sign that...

Sponsors

Your Ad Here

singapore

Malaysia

Indonesia

Phillippines

Vietnam

More from China

31 queries. 0.384 seconds