Good morning,

The ‘third force’ in Thai politics is about to be launched, possibly today (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/09/11/headlines/headlines_30048529.php). The Pua Paendin or ‘For the Motherland’ party which will run on a manifesto of: “"Building the nation, maintaining religion and safeguarding the monarchy.” This party, it is expected, will become the home of junta leaders who intend to maintain their grip on politics into the future, not least because they will need to protect themselves against future prosecution for the acts leading up to September 19^th last year. There have been many rumours of leading junta cronies collecting money from various businesspeople and, although of course we cannot take rumours seriously, perhaps the situation is about to become a little clearer. Meanwhile, a limit of 150 million baht is to be placed on any individual contributing to a single political party (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/09/11/headlines/headlines_30048534.php), which is obviously not aimed at any particular individual.

One of the leaders of the Sri Lankan paramilitary/terrorist group the Tamil Tigers has been arrested in Bangkok (http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=121507). Kumaran Pathmanadan is said to be the head of the group’s arms procurement and to be a ‘kingpin’ of arms smuggling in Asia.

Fifteen new species of plant have been discovered in the Kingdom’s latest survey of wildlife (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/11Sep2007_news03.php). That is the good news – the bad news is that most of them are already threatened with extinction through the activities of mankind.

Two new reviews have been published at Bookideas: Richard Matheson’s extraordinary I Am Legend (http://www.bookideas.com/reviews/index.cfm?fuseaction=displayReview&id=3930) and Duong Thu Huong’s splendid Memories of a Pure Spring (http://www.bookideas.com/reviews/index.cfm?fuseaction=displayReview&id=3931). Meanwhile, I published a couple of new articles at Suite 101: ASEAN Accepts Climate Change (http://easianaffairs.suite101.com/article.cfm/asean_accepts_climate_change) and Hanoi: Development Gone Wild? (http://vietnam.suite101.com/article.cfm/hanoi). I hope to put up some more either today or tomorrow, although there are also numerous other tasks awaiting my attention. We shall see.

Back tomorrow at some stage – it is an all-day teaching bonanza.

Happy birthday Alice!