Good morning,

Well, having reopened last week in the face of demonstrations by thousands of workers, the Thai Silp company has announced that it will close its doors permanently (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/20Jul2007_news03.php). It has offered workers 50% of the month’s pay and offered to sell existing assets to meet at least some part of the severance package the law mandates for workers. Existing debts and the inability to find a new lender are being blamed – the 5000 workers are part of the threatened 300,000 job losses in the garments and textiles export industries predicted as a result of the high Baht.

Speaking of the baht, the junta-appointed ‘parliament,’ the NLA has been debating what to do, rather ineffectually (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=30602). Individuals are to be permitted to open dollar accounts here as a way of getting rid of all these unwanted greenbacks floating about (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/07/20/business/business_30041644.php). Doubt that will do much but we will see.

Political parties not dissolved by the strange but in no way junta-influenced court decisions have started to unveil their banners for a forthcoming election, if one is ever held (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/07/20/politics/politics_30041633.php). A singularly uninspiring lot they are, resorting to tired, failed policies of ‘unity’ and the ‘middle path’ and with no party yet to establish any form of coherent policy manifesto. It was one of That Rak Thai’s great achievements to have (seemingly) dragged Thai politics out of the nineteenth century and forced political parties to say what apart from office they stood for. Alas, certain influences in the Kingdom prefer the old ways of doing things.

I published this at Suite 101 yesterday: Walsh, John, “Chou: China’s Second Dynasty,” Suite 101 (July 18^th, 2007), available at: http://chinese-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/chou.

Back on Monday.