Good morning,

Around 37,000 students have failed to find a school place for the Matthayom 1 (that’s seventh grade or the start of secondary school) level because of insufficient numbers, according to an article in The Nation which has clearly not been properly edited yet. This happens every year and, although the kids usually get a place somewhere or other in the end (it is the law that they must attend school, after all), it is all very concerning for them and indeed their parents – as can well be imagined, the situation leads to significant incentives for people to use cash payments to obtain a seat in their preferred school, which is unfortunate since it privileges the rich at the expense of the poor.

Thailand is one of the (more than a hundred) countries to have been targetted by the Ghostnet cyberwar/crime network that is definitely not being operated by the Chinese government (because all types of cybercrime are banned in China). A computer in the Thai Embassy in the Philippines was hacked, for example. It will be interesting to see what comes of all this.

Pro-democracy demonstrators continue their protest at Government House (they want an end to the puppet government and a return to democratic government); the cabinet may be forced to move somewhere else where they can be busy avoiding taking any hard decisions and there is speculation of what might happen next now that ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra has named General Prem Tinsulanonda and General Surayud Chulanont as being chief conspirators behind the 2006 military coup (the latter denies his involvement). 21 of the leaders of the anti-democracy PAD movement have been charged with various offences by police. Charges relating to the murders and kidnappings perpetrated by the PAD mob have yet to emerge and there has not been anything yet relating to the illegal (and economically disastrous) seizure of the two international airports).

I have a new article on Timur the Lame at Socyberty and three new reviews at Bookideas, which are of Victor Pelevin’s The Blue Lantern, Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns and Yasunari Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness.

Back tomorrow.

Had we have played, we would surely have won – it is a matter of virtue and good intentions, after all.