From what I’ve read, they seem to find her vapid and as to accepting of the Shinawatra side of things. The guy who I saw this from does seem to have an agenda and not be terribly objective, although I’m not sure that’s he’s presenting himself as a journalist or disinterested party.
Of course as an Ambassador, she is obliged to work with the official government, and can’t interact with the opposition. They claim that she’s gone out of her way to ignore the other side. FWIW, she was originally appointed as an ambassador by GWB (to Philippines?), but then appointed as the Thai ambassador by Obama. Career diplomatic corp.
Bah! And when Abhisit was prime minister, she and the embassy rejected a letter from red shirt protesters. They’re just pissed off she didn’t throw in her lot – lock, stock and barrel – with the yellow shirts. Fuck them. There’s nothing wrong with her.
They also seem to have a problem with her constant posting on Twitter, Instagram, etc. She does seem to go overboard on the selfies and food pics, but maybe that’s what Ambassador’s are supposed to do?
Couldn’t access the Instagram stuff, but her Twitter posts seem appropriate for a U.S. ambassador, incl. her support for freedom of the press and democracy in Thailand. So I, too, will decline to sign the petition for her recall.
There was a massive show of force at Victory Monument in central Bangkok yesterday (Thursday). About 1300 soldiers and police. Another 300 were sent to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre at the Pathum Wan intersection (same intersection as Siam Square and MBK Center). There’d been reports that red-shirt demonstrations were planned, but for some reason they apparently didn’t materialize, heh. They’re serious about cracking down on these protests.
Victory Monument is something of an oddity. I like it better than Democracy Monument, but most Thais don’t know what “victory” it commemorates. One time a station sent a news crew to the monument and asked passersby what they thought it was erected for. A good many thought it was for World War II, apparently not realizing that Thailand had been on the losing side, allied with Japan. A few said World War I, and although Siam was an Allied partner for that one, no, it wasn’t WWI. Not one single Thai was able to name the “victory.” As you can see from the link, it commemorates an obscure “victory” over Vichy France in fighting during what’s called the Franco-Thai War in late 1940 and early 1941 in which the conclusion was indecisive:
**"In fact the fighting between the Thais and the French in December 1940 and January 1941 had been brief and inconclusive. Only 59 Thai troops were killed, and the final territorial settlement was imposed on both parties by Japan, which did not want to see a prolonged war between two regional allies at a time when it was preparing to launch a war of conquest in South East Asia. Thailand’s gains were less than it hoped for, although more than the French wished to concede. Nevertheless the Thai regime of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram decided to celebrate the war as a great victory, and the monument was commissioned, designed and erected within a few months.
“The monument became an embarrassment in a more political sense in 1945 when the Allied victory in the Pacific War forced Thailand to evacuate the territories it had gained in 1941 and return them to France. Many Thais regard the monument as an inappropriate symbol of militarism and a relic of what they now see as a discredited regime. Nevertheless the monument remains one of Bangkok’s most familiar landmarks.”**
Interesting. I didn’t know that Thailand had been allied with Japan. My wife’s family’s house was occupied by the Japanese, so I assumed that they’d been at war. It seems that Field Marshall Pibulsonggram ruled as a dictator during the war, since King Ananda Mahidol was essentially a boy at the time and Pibulsonggram and the People’s Party essentially forced King Prajadhipok to abdicate while in exile. Prajadhipok’s story is both interesting and sad. All the military coups seem to trace back to King Prajadhipok and the big changes brought on by the People’s Party.
No, that’s not quite true. King Prajadhipok abdicated before the war, in 1935. March 2, 1935, to be precise, during Prime Minister Phahonphon Phayuhasena’s term. Phibunsongkhram did not become prime minister until 1938, 3-1/2 years into King Ananda’s reign.
Japan invaded Thailand at the same time it took Singapore and the Malay Peninsula. Thailand rolled over and welcomed it’s “ally.” A fiction was created that Thailand was an ally, but really it was an occupied country – Thailand even went so far as to declare war officially on the Allied powers, although Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador to the US (and himself a future prime minister) refused to deliver the declaration in Washington. Seni spent the war in Washington, and from there organized and directed the Seri Thai or Free Thai Movement, akin to the French Resistance. You have perhaps heard of the legendary OSS operative and future silk magnate Jim Thompson? He parachuted into Thailand during the war to coordinate with the Seri Thai, although not much of importance occurred here. After the war, that snake Phibunsongkhram tried to claim he had secretly been working with the Seri Thai and wasn’t really in bed with the Japanese, but he was full of shit.
Side note: After the war, Britain and France wanted Thailand punished, but the US, recognizing that Thailand had not really been an Axis partner, almost single-handedly scotched that, which is a big reason the US has remained popular with Thais for so long. They did have to return the former French colonial territory in Laos and Cambodia that Japan had granted them though.
Japanese command HQ in Bangkok is still here. It’s off the corner of Sathon and Surasak roads. After the war it became the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and today, after a beautiful restoration, is the beautiful but overpriced and mediocre Blue Elephant Restaurant.
It’s Saturday morning here, but I’m getting word of extensive red-shirt protests planned for various parts of Bangkok tomorrow, Sunday. Reportedly, several road and Skytrain-station closures are already being planned by the authorities in a bid to stymie them. Here’s hoping the army can squash this if it’s true.
Huh. That links says the war ended before Thompson actually arrived. But I know I’ve read that he parachuted in during the war. But then, there are all sorts of mysterious stories about Thompson.
In most Asian countries, it seems they either will remove your genetalia if you are found guilty of any drug offense or else the laws are fairly lenient or at least no one pays much attention to them.
I always thought of Thailand as a very progressive country where Westerners could visit or vacation without much fear of being imprisoned or kidnapped and held for exorbitant ransoms.
Harsh, with the death penalty for large amounts. Bottom line: Don’t do drugs here.
And you’ve heard of the Bridge over the River Kwai? That’s in Thailand too, in Kanchanaburi province close to Burma. The book and film were highly fictional – the bridge was taken out by aerial bombing toward the end of the war-- and there are a couple of Allied POW cemeteries there. Many of the survivors from those camps ended up settling there or coming back for regular visits, particularly on ANZAC Day. I believe the last one died recently, although I can’t remember if he was the last one among all of them to die or just the last one who had come back and settled in Kanchanaburi.
I should add that a lot of visitors do do drugs here. The Full-Moon Parties on southern beaches every month are legendary. But really, the laws are quite strict, and if you get popped, you can figure on paying an exorbitant “fine” or doing many years – sometimes decades – in jail. If you have enough on you, it’s a death sentence. It’s simply not worth it.
When I lived in Bangkok, there was a big meth (ya ba) problem. How has that evolved?
I recall the whole thing a few years back where the police suddenly shot all of the “dealers”, some of whom presumably weren’t dealers but perhaps rivals or such.
The cynic in me assumed that they were just killing off the competition. Was wondering if they’d also started to see a lot of illegitimate use of prescription painkillers, as has happened here in the US.