Thailand News Summary

Thailand will soon be facing a population crisis due to the rising number of elderly citizens, the declining number of young and working populace and the total fertility rate dropping. Kua Wongboonsin, a population studies expert from Chulalongkorn University, said the problem of dropping fertility rates needed immediate attention because the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime had hugely dropped from 6.3 children during 1964 and 1965 to just 1.61 during 2005 and 2006. With each family now having less than two children, the Thai family structure has changed drastically.

Comment: Traditionally, Thai people live in extended families with their parents and grandparents and also sometimes aunts and uncles. There was no need for extensive retirement homes because families looked after their own. But, things are changing. With an ageing population and the break-up of extended familes, future Thai governments will be faced with a crisis of not being able to support elderly people.

Source: The Nation
Related Website: ThailandQA.com

The Education Ministry in Thailand will next year require primary and secondary schools to grade the “ethical performance” of their pupils in the hope that it will encourage students to behave and contribute better to their families, schools and communities. The students’ ethics and morality would be graded in four categories: activities for the public interest; activities that demonstrate a student’s sacrifice (such as blood donations); activities that show a student’s gratitude; and activities that demonstrate decency that can be used as an example for others. The Education Ministry will require primary schools do “ethical” activities for at least six hours every term. More for high schools. Students will be graded according to the degree of their good deeds.

Comment: Anything that is done to increase the ethics and morality of a population cannot be bad. Let’s hope that it is not just another pipe dream. Over the last few years there have been so many different Education Ministers that it must be difficult to follow through any new plan. On the surface, this new plan seems over ambitious. However, having said that, Thai students are probably amongst the most diligent and respectful of students around the world. Going to the next stage shouldn’t be that difficult.

Source: Bangkok Post
Related Website: Thai Students Online

Almost 77 per cent of Thailand’s youth have little knowledge about AIDS. According to the Ministry of Public Health, the number of AIDS patients is as high as 321,650. Of this, 50 per cent are persons aged between 25-34 years. It showed that most people with AIDS had contracted the disease in adolescence and began to show signs of illness when they grew up. A survey on the knowledge about AIDS among Thai youth found only 23 per cent of young males and 26 per cent of young females properly understand the disease. A report on surveillance of risky behavior found only about half of young Thais use condoms when they have casual sexual encounters. An average age of the youth who engage in sexual activities is 15 years compared with the 18 year age-level indicated in an earlier survey.

Comment: This shouldn’t really come as a surprise as we have all been discussing the lack of proper sex education classes in schools. Thai society is very conservative and discussions of sex at home and school has never been encouraged. Sex education needs to start in primary school and students should be encouraged to practice safe sex. Teachers also need to understand that teaching a student how to put on a condom will not necessarily make them sexually active at an earlier age.

Source: TNA
Related Website: Thai Drug Addict

One woman was killed and five people injured in an amusement ride accident at Siam Park. The accident, on the Indiana Log ride, happened at 12.30pm. It sparked calls for better safety rules for amusement parks. Noppakarn Luang-amornlert, deputy administration manager at the park, said the accident happened because a sudden drop in power caused a water pump to fail - so there was no water for the ride to float on. The ride ran all the way from the top to the bottom of a hill and crashed, because there wasn’t enough water to cushion the impact. The ride usually careers down a waterway at a speed of 50 kilometres per hour.

Comment: This is not the first time an accident like this has happened in an amusement park in Thailand. Two children died when a train ride caught fire at Fashion Island in 2002. It would seem that safety standards are low and not up to international standards. Many amusement parks and tourist attractions in Thailand charge foreigners higher admission prices. The argument is that it is still cheaper than what they have to pay at home. However, many tourists complain of poor standards and low value for money.

Source: The Nation
Related Website: Thailand Guidebook
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com

World renowned illusionist David Copperfield may be able to fool his audiences on stage but off it, no disappearing act can save him from the hands of justice. Copperfield, who had planned to visit Bangkok for a tour in November, was forced to cancel the show after reports emerged that he is currently embroiled in a sexual harassment case. According to FBI police, Copperfield was accused of raping a female victim from Seattle back in July. Investigators say the victim left it until now to file charges because she had been outside of the United States all this while. Last week, investigators conducted a search on Copperfield’s trailer in Las Vegas and seized data from his digital camera and computer hard drive. Local organisers of Copperfield’s “World of Wonder” show plan to make an announcement to let those who bought tickets to the November show in Bangkok know that tickets will be reimbursed.

Source: Bangkok Post
Related Website: Bangkok Guidebook

Waning public enthusiasm for Jatukham Rammathep amulets has left many Chiang Mai temples in deep financial trouble. Sales of the talismans are too small to cover what temples spent to have them made. Some temples have incurred debts in the millions of baht after they borrowed to produce the amulets, unaware their popularity would slump so soon. Their predicament prompted the Chiang Mai Buddhism Office to organise a fair just for local temples to sell their amulets and earn money to repay their debts. The one-week amulet bazaar opened last Friday at Lokmolee Temple in Chiang Mai’s Muang district with more than 20 temples putting up stalls. Abbot of Wat Phratat Doikoeng, Luangpor Boonsri, said his temple borrowed Bt5 million to make 200,000 amulets in August. It has sold just 1,000.

Comment: This was only to be expected. For a while the amulets were demanding high prices. Then the market was flooded with cheap imitations. Obviously some abbots with greedy intentions thought that this was a good way to make a quick buck. Someone should have told them to stick to the precepts which forbids money making enterprises. They have only themselves to blame. Amulets have nothing to do with true Buddhism and they shouldn’t be peddled on temple grounds.

Source: The Nation
Related Website: Thai Buddhist Life

Attempts to eliminate vote-buying during Thailand’s upcoming general election are likely to be fruitless as a recent survey shows that two out of three Thais are quite ready to accept money in exchange for their votes. Also, the most worrisome result obtained from the survey was that 83 per cent of the respondents said they would not inform the Election Commission on any vote-buying practices even if they had evidence. Only 51.9 per cent of the respondents said they would consider both political party policies and the qualifications and personalities of the candidates before casting their ballots, while 28 per cent said they would give preferential attention to the candidates themselves and only 20.1 per cent indicated they would make their decision based on party policy platforms.

Comment: The problem with politics in Thailand is that many parties come and go and it is very difficult knowing where they stand. Hence, most people vote for the party leaders rather than the actual party. As this survey shows, 65% of people need an incentive to help them vote. Vote buying is so much part of Thai politics that it will take time for it just to go away. There is no point in cracking down on corrupt politicians when the general public still think it is perfectly alright to receive money under the table.

Source: The Nation
Related Website: Thailand Life
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com

Police and soldiers are facing allegations by a man who accused them of pocketing more than Bt40 million after a high-profile raid. The man, known only as “Prasit", claimed the amount uncovered on October 9 was actually more than Bt74 million - but the figure made public was only Bt30,496,800. Prasit said he helped the authorities dig up the seven PVC pipes containing the money. Prasit said he was entitled to a Bt20-million bounty promised verbally by senior security officials.

Colonel Manas Kongpan, who led the raid, said two of the cash-filled pipes had been handed as a reward to a group of informants who tipped off the officials. “The informants might have misunderstood that the pipes they got were of equal length to those the officials took to the police station,” he said. “In fact they were smaller - each was only 30 centimetres long - and contained only Bt4 million, not Bt40 million as they suggested.”

Comment: It is common knowledge these days that informants receive 10% of the amount seized and the police officer involved in the operation would get 5%. Although this may be good in theory, it is also open to abuse. Police have been known to plant drugs or stolen valuables on people just to get their rewards. The question here, of course, is why wasn’t the cash counted out BEFORE the informants received their split?

Source: The Nation
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com

A Thai school has apologized to an international Jewish human rights organization for its sponsorship of a celebration that involved a Nazi-themed parade. The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a press release that a group of students at Thewphaingarm School in Bangkok chose to dress as Nazis on sports day. Photos from the event showed about 200 students dressed in red outfits with swastikas on their baseball caps behind a large sign with “NAZI” in shoulder-high letters. Some students at the school wore elaborately stylized stormtrooper uniforms, carried fake rifles or performed the “sieg heil” salute.

Comment: It should be remembered that the swastika, the symbol of the Nazi party, was originally a good luck symbol in Asian countries. Some tourists are shocked to see swastika symbols at temples. However, dressing as stormtroopers is insensitive and shows how Thais are not in touch with world feelings. After the World Trade Center was hit by the airplanes, Thai students could be seen wearing t-shirts with Bin Laden and pictures of the planes hitting the twin towers.

Source: Associated Press
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com

Bangkok is likely to suffer a bone-chilling winter this year, according to the weather bureau. The Meteorological Department said yesterday that they expect winter to be cooler than last year, particularly from December to January, when the mercury was likely to dip to 16 degrees Celsius. The average temperature this year would be 1-2 degrees lower than usual, and cold snaps would last longer - at least one week.

Comment: December and January are usually the coolest months in Thailand though this year winter seems to have come earlier. Many people die during unexpected cold snaps as local people, and govenment officials, always seem to be unprepared. Stockpiles of warm coats and blankets should be prepared now.

Source: The Nation
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com

Armed police are hunting for 36 crocodiles that escaped from a farm in northeastern Thailand when their pens were flooded after heavy rains. Search parties shot and killed eight of the animals. Police and village volunteers have been scouring the Nonsoong district of Nakhon Ratchasima province by boat, day and night, in a desparate bid to recapture them all before a crocodile bites someone in the flooded waters. Nighttime searches are said to be the most effective as because crocodiles’ eyes glow in the dark.

Comment: Crocodiles are farmed in Thailand for their skin and meat. Many farms are unregulated and sometimes consist of a few flimsy pens in someone’s backyard. This is not the first instance of crocodiles escaping during floods. With the town under water, let’s hope that no-one gets bitten.

Source: Associated Press
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com

Thailand’s reading habits stack up poorly against neighbours like Vietnam and Singapore. The average Thai reads just two books a year and the average annual amount people spend on books is just Bt260 (US$7.50). In Vietnam the average is 60 books a year and in Singapore the number is 45, according to survey data. In addition, Korea has one library for every 20,000 people while Thailand has only one per 84,000.

Comment: Presumably the people doing the survey didn’t include cartoon books. Both Thai children and male adults can be seen everywhere reading these comics which have often been imported from Japan. Although the results are surprisingly low, the number of readers have greatly increased over the last few years. This can mainly be contributed to the success of the Harry Potter books which were translated into Thai. The book fairs that are held during the school holidays are increasingly becoming packed with Thai shoppers looking for book bargains.

Source: The Nation
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com

Khomsan Khotepathum, who allegedly stole Bt3 million worth of gold necklaces in Bangkok’s Bang Khae district was arrested after dropping his wallet in the getaway taxi. The driver said he became suspicious when his passenger paid the fare with a gold necklace. The unnamed driver said Khomsan had appeared extremely agitated before he was dropped off at Wat Sri Iam intersection. The driver notified police after he found Khomsan’s wallet on the floor of his taxi. Police discovered 123 gold necklaces weighing about 4.5 kilograms in Khomsan’s home, along with a knife, a plastic pistol and a hammer. Khomsan was out celebrating at the time, but the police waited patiently and arrested him once he returned in the early hours of the morning.

Comment: The morale of the story is, don’t take any personal identification with you during robberies. At least this taxi driver was honest enough to hand in the lost wallet he found. Presumably he also had to return the necklace.

Source: The Nation
Related website: BangkokScams.com
Full report and feedback at: ThailandQA.com